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READINGS IN THE 

HISTORY OF THE 
AMERICAN NATION 



TWENTIETH CENTURY TEXT-BOOKS 
OF HISTORY 



A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN NATION. By 

Andrew C. McLaughlin, A.M., LL.B., Professor 
and Head of Department of History in the Univer- 
sity of Chicago. New edition, thoroughly revised 
and rewritten. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.50. 

A HISTORY OF THE BRITISH NATION. By 

George M. Wrong, M.A., Professor of History, 
University of Toronto. Hlustrated. Cloth, $1.30. 

THE STORY OF THE ANCIENT NATIONS. By 
William L. Westermann, Ph.D., Associate Pro- 
fessor of History, University of Wisconsin. Hlus- 
trated. Cloth, S1.50. 

A HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. By Dana 
Carleton Munro, A.M., Professor of European 
History, University of Wisconsin, Hlustrated. 
Cloth, 90 cents. 

A HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE. By Merrick 
Whitcomb, Ph.D., Professor of Modem History, 
University of Cincinnati. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.10. 

MUNRO'S MIDDLE AGES AND WHITCOMB'S 
MODERN EUROPE in one volume. Cloth, §1.50. 

LIFE OF THE ANCIENT GREEKS. By Charles 
Burton Gulick, Ph.D., Professor of Greek in 
Harvard University. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.40. 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

NEW YORK CHICAGO 



READINGS IN THE 

HISTORY OF THE 
AMERICAN NATION 



COLLECTED AND EDITED 
BY 

ANDREW c. McLaughlin 

PROFESSOR, AND HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY 
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 




D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

NEW YORK CHICAGO 



Br/73 ^ 



Copyright, 1914, by 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



SEP 221814 

'0 



f/^ 



©CU379578 



PREFACE 

It is now common in all schools to require pupils to pre- 
pare papers on assigned topics or to do a certain amount of 
reading in addition to the lesson in the text-book. There ap- 
pears to be no difference of opinion among teachers con- 
cerning the value of this collateral reading and study: it re- 
leases the pupil from bondage to the text, widens his view, 
and gives him training in the handling of material. There are 
often, however, difficulties in obtaining books to be used in this 
way, and it is especially difficult to get books covering a large 
portion of the field; moreover, even when a school is pro- 
vided with a reference library, the illustrative material is not 
always found without unreasonable effort. This volume of 
selections is not offered in expectation that it will entirely take 
the place of the school library in American history, but with 
the hopes that it will be of service where schools are not 
possessed of reference books and that in any case the selec- 
tions will wisely amplify and illuminate the text-book and will 
make it possible to require a certain amount of work out- 
side the text without placing unnecessarily heavy burdens on 
the pupil. Even if these selections are not used as the basis 
of definite oral or written reports, the pupils will, it is to be 
hoped, find them interesting and readable. 

This volume does not pretend to be a thoroughly balanced 
presentation of materials on American history, a volume in 
which each portion of the field receives its just and adequate 
share of attention; such a thoroughly balanced volume may 
be desirable, but a book like this, intended to be used in con- 
nection with a text-book, rather than independently, need not 
be so formidable in its content or so precise in its disposition 
of space. In making the selections I have been influenced by 
several considerations: first, by the desire to include things 
that are really interesting and at the same time give signifi- 
cant information; second, by the desire to give ample oppor- 
tunity for reading of industrial conditions and developments 

V 



vi PREFACE 

in American history, because there is an increasing interest 
in such matters and because they cannot generally be ade- 
quately presented in a text-book without unduly limiting the 
story of political events; third, by the intention of giving ma- 
terials which will illustrate critical movements or changes in 
political organization and especially the movements of very 
recent times — such movements as those for direct primaries, 
the initiative and the referendum. 

I owe my thanks and acknowledgments to a number of pub- 
lishing houses who have allowed me to use portions of books 
or articles protected by copyright. The names of the pub- 
lishers are given in connection with the excerpts in the body 
of the book and are again given in the table of contents. I 
therefore content myself here with a general word of appre- 
ciation of the courtesy. 

I wish, also, to thank Dr. Theodore C. Pease for his efficient 
assistance in the preparation of the volume. 

A. C. McLaughlin. 

ChicagOo 



CONTENTS 

PART I 
THE COLONIES 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I The English Settler and the American Wilder- 
ness I 

Edward Eggleston : The Transit of Civili- 
zation, pp. 126-127. D. Appleton & Co., New 
York, 1901. 

II The Appalachian Barrier 2 

N. S. Shaler: Nature and Man in America, pp. 
194-5. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 
1893. 

III The Problem of the English Poor 5 

Edward Eggleston: The Transit of Civilization, 
pp. 293-295, passim. 

IV The First Legislative Assembly in America . 7 

William Wirt Henry : The First Legislative 
Assembly in America, in Report of American 
Historical Association, 1893, PP- 302-304; 309- 
10; 314. 

V The Pilgrim Country 12 

Edward Eggleston : The Beginners of a Na- 
tion, pp. 149-157. D. Appleton & Co., New 
York, 1896. 

VI Witchcraft 19 

Edward Eggleston: The Transit of Civilization, 
pp. 25-34- 
VII Colonial Schools and a Colonial College . . 26 
Edward Eggleston : The Transit of Civilization, 
pp. 239, 249. 

VIII The Life and Home of a Colonial Planter . . 30 
Kate M. Rowland : The Life of George Mason, 
pp. 98-102. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York 
and London, 1892. 

IX The New England Town :^6 

Timothy Dwight, S.T.D., LL.D., Late President 
of Yale College: Travels in Nezc-England 
and New-York, Vol. I, pp. 248-252. New 
Haven, 182 1. 

vii 



Vlll 



CONTENTS 



PART II 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 

CHAPTER PAGE 

X Causes of the American Revolution .... 42 
W. E. H. Lecky: The American Revolution, 
1762-1283. Being the Chapters and Passages 
Relating to America from the Author's His- 
tory of England' in the Eighteenth Century. 
Arranged and Edited by J. A. Woodburn, pp. 
51-56, 75-79. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 
1898. 

XI Taxation and Representation 51 

The Parliamentary History of England, Vol. 
XVI, pp. 98 fif. London, 1813. 

XII The Loyalists in the American RevcTlution . 57 
M. C. Tyler: The Loyalists in the American 
Revolution, in the American Historical Re- 
view, 1896, Vol. I, pp. 27-31. 

XIII The United States after the Revolution . . 61 

J. P. Brissot de Warville : New Travels in the 
United States of America Performed in 1788. 
Second Edition, Vol. I, pp. 97-102, 128-132, 
266-270, 384-386. London, 1794. 

XIV How the Framers of the Constitution Trav- 

eled 70 

Massachusetts Spy, or the Worcester Gazette, 
January 5, 1786. Reprinted in A Century of 
Population Growth, Bureau of the Census, 
1909, p. 22. 

XV How the Defects of the Federal Union may be 

Remedied 71 

The Federalist, Edited by Henry B. Dawson, 
Vol. I, pp. 91-100. New York, 1863. 

XVI The Federal Con\^ntion, 1787 79 

Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Consti- 
tution, by James Madison. Revised and Newly 
Arranged by Jonathan Elliot, pp. 120-122 ; 554- 
5; 565- Washington, 1845. 

XVII The Framers of the Constitution 87 

Notes of Major William Pierce on the Fed- 
eral Convention of 1787, in the American His- 
torical Review, 1897-8. Vol. Ill, pp. 325 ff. 

XVIII The Constitution 93 

A description of its contents and its interpreta- 
tion by the Editor, 



CONTENTS 



IX 



PART III 
THE NEW GOVERNMENT 

CHAPTER TAGE 

XIX Hamilton on the Construction of the Consti- 
tution 103 

Works of Hamilton, J. C. Hamilton, Editor, 
Vol. IV, pp. 106, ff. New York, 1851. 

XX Jeffersonian Democracy .107 

Journal of the Senate, 6th Congress, 2d Session, 
pp. 141-147. March 4, 1801. 
XXI How THE Embargo Was Enforced and Evaded . 113 
J. B. McMaster: Historv of the People of the 
United States, Vol. Ill, pp. 279-307, passim. 
D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1892. 

XXII The Caucus of 1824 122 

Niles' Register, Vol. XXV, pp. 137-8- Novem- 
ber I, 1823. 



PART IV 
THE NEW WEST 

XXIII Colonization of the West 128 

Frederick J. Turner: The Colonization of the 
West, 1820-1830, in the American Historical 
Review, 1905-6, Vol. XI, pp. zoz-Z^7, passim. 

XXIV The Ohio Valley in 1817 140 

Morris Birkbeck: Notes on a Journey in Amer- 
ica, 2d Edition, pp. 69-71, 80-82, 89-92, 103-105, 
London, 1818; and John Woods: Two Years' 
Residence . . . in the Illinois Country, pp. 267- 
270. London, 1822. 

XXV The Commerce of the Mississippi . . . ._ • i47 
Report on Internal Commerce of the United 
States, 1887, pp. 199, 205, 214-15. 50th Con- 
gress, 1st Session, House Executive Docu- 
ments, No. 6, Part II, Vol. 20. 

XXVI The Reaper • i53 

R. G. Thwaites : Cyrus Hall McCormick, _ m 
Proceedings of the Wisconsin Historical 
Society, 1908, pp. 234-259, passim. 

XXVII Slavery in the New Southwest 160 

Susan Dabney Smedes : A Southern Planter, 
PP- 7-15; 29-30. London, 1889. 
XXVIII An Englishman on American Travel . . . 164 
Capt. Marryat: Second Series of a Diary in 



X 

CHAPTER 



XXIX 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



America, pp. 3-5, 7-8, 9-io, 32-33- Collins, 
Philadelphia, 1840. 

The Development of Transportation on West- 
ern Rivers 169 

Michel Chevalier : Society, Manners and Poli- 
tics in the United States, pp. 214-216. Trans- 
lation. Boston, 1839. 



PART V 
THE MOVEMENT TO THE FAR WEST 

XXX The Santa Fe Trade . . . ._ I73 

J. Gregg: Commerce of the Prairies, Vol. I, pp. 
32-39, 44-46, 62, 91-93, 109- 1 14, 226-7, 232. H. 
G. Langley, New York, 1844. 

XXXI The Oregon Trail 182 

Francis Parkman : The Oregon Trail, pp. 1-6, 

36, 51-54- Little, Brown and Co., New York, 

1893. 

XXXII California in 1849 190 

Frank Soule and Others : The Annals of San 

Francisco, pp. 201-204, 209-217, passim. D. 

Appleton & Co., New York, 1855. 



PART VI 
SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 

XXXIII Garrisonian Abolitionism ^ 199 

A. — Slavery a Positive Evil, The Liberator, Vol. 

I, p. I. 
B. — Slavery and the Constitution, The Liberator, 

Vol. XIV, p. 86. 
C. — Burning the Constitution, The Liberator, Vol. 

XXIV, p. 106. July 4, 1854. 

XXXIV Sla\tery a Positive Good 206 

R. K. Cralle: Speeches of John C. Calhoun, 
Vol. II, pp. 626-633. D. Appleton & Co., New 
York, 1853. 

XXXV John Quincy Adams on Slavery ..... 212 
Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Vol. IX, p. 
255; Vol. X, p. 453. J. B. Lippincott Co., 
Philadelphia, 1874. 

XXXVI A Favorable View of the Slave System . . . 215 
Susan Dabney Smedes : A Southern Planter, 
pp. 31-32. London, 1889, 



CONTENTS xi 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XXXVII A Northerner's View of Slavery 216 

F. L. Olmsted: The Cotton Kingdom, Vol. I, 
pp. 8-16, 100, 233-46; Vol. II, pp. 176-179. 
Mason Brothers, New York, 1861. 

XXXVIII Congressional Legislation on Slavery . . . 229 
A. — The Missouri Compromise, U. S. Statutes at 

Large, Vol. Ill, pp. 545, 548. 
B. — Extracts from the Report of the Committee 
of Thirteen, Senate Report 122, 31st Congress, 
1st Session, p. 11. 
C. — An Act to Establish a Territorial Govern- 
ment for Utah, U. S. Statutes at Large, Vol. 

IX, p. 453. 

D. — Texas and New Mexico, U. S. Statutes at 
Large, Vol. IX, pp. 446-447. 

E. — An Act to Suppress the Slave Trade in the 
District of Columbia, U. S. Statutes at Large, 
Vol. IX, pp. 467-8. 

F. — The Fugitive Slave Law, U. S. Statutes at 
Large, Vol. IX, pp. 463-465, 

G. — An Act to Organize the Territories of Ne- 
braska and Kansas. U. S. Statutes at Large, 
Vol. X, pp. 277 ff. 

PART VII 
THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 



XXXIX Calhoun's Last Speech 242 

Works of Calhoun, Vol. IV, pp. 542-573. D. 
Appleton & Co., New York, 1854. 

XL The Northwest Forms a New Party .... 254 
A. C. McLaughlin : Lewis Cass in the Ameri- 
can Statesmen Series, Vol. XXIV, pp. 300-323. 
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1899. 

XLI "A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand" 263 
Political Debates Betzveen Hon. Abraham Lin- 
coln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, pp. i, ff. 
Columbus, Ohio, i860. 

XLII Slavery as a Moral Issue 268 

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, pp. 481- 
486, Vol. Ill of the Collections of the Illinois 
State Historical Library, Edwin E. Sparks, 
Editor. Springfield, Illinois, 1908. 



XLIII Abraham Lincoln 

A. — Lincoln's Character. H, von Hoist: Con- 
stitutional and Political History of the United 
States, Vol. VI, pp. 269-278. Callaghan and 
Co., Chicago, 1889. 



274 



xii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

B. — Lincoln's First Inaugural Address. Frank 
Moore : Rebellion Record, Vol. I, Documents, 
PP- 36-39. New York, 1867. 

XLIV Jefferson Davis's Inaugural 289 

Frank Moore : Rebellion Record, Vol. I, Docu- 
ments, pp. 31, 32. New York, 1867. 

PART VIII 

THE CIVIL WAR 

XLV The Emancipation Proclamation 292 

Diary of Gideon Welles, Vol. I, pp. 142, 143. 
Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1911. 

XLVI The Southern Army 294 

George Cary Eggleston : A Rebel's Recollec- 
tions, pp. 31-53, passim. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 
New York and London, 1875. 

XLVII When Money Was Easy 299 

George Cary Eggleston: A Rebel's Recollec- 
tions, pp. 77-95, passim. 

PART IX 

RECONSTRUCTION 

XLVIII The Dominant Theory of Reconstruction . . 304 
Congressional Globe, December 18, 1865, pp. y^- 
74. 39th Congress, ist Session; and Congres- 
sional Globe, January 3, 1867, p. 252, 39th Con- 
gress, 2d Session. 

XLIX The Freedman's Bureau 308 

House Executive Documents, No. 70, 39th Con- 
gress, 1st Session, p. 154; and Affairs in the 
Late Insurrectionary States, Vol. i, pp. 441-2, 
42d Congress, 2d Session, Senate Report 41, 
Part I. 

L Southern Government Under Reconstruction . 3T2 
A. — Election to the Alabama Convention of 
1868. Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary 
States, "Alabama Testimony," Vol. Ill, p. 1832. 
Senate Reports, 42d Congress, 2d Session, 
187I-72. 
B.— Painted Pegs. Affairs in the Late Insurrec- 
tionary States, "Alabama Testimony," p. 314, 
Senate Reports, 426. Congress, 2d Session, 
1871-72. 
C— A Negro Legislature. J. S. Pike: The 



CHAPTER 



CONTENTS xiii 

PAGE 

Prostrate State, pp. 12-21, passim. D. Appleton 
and Co., New York, 1874. 
LI A Specimen of the Carpet-Bagger and His Mis- 

GOVERNMENT •. • • • ' 31" 

A— Governor Warmoth of Louisiana. House 
Report, No. 92, p. 24, 42d Congress, 2d Ses- 
sion, 1872. TT A 

B.— The Increase of State Expenditures. H. A. 
Herbert and Others, Why the Solid SouthT, 
p. 403. R. H. Woodward and Co., Baltimore, 
1890. 

LII Social Conditions During Reconstruction ^ . . 320 
Charles Nordhoff: The Cotton States m the 
Spring and Summer of 1875, pp. 17-18, 55, 7», 
96. D. Appleton and Co., New York, 1876. 

LIII The Southern Negro after Emancipation . .322 
Robert Somers : The Southern States Since the 
War, pp. 128-9. New York, 1871. 

LIV The Ku Klux Klan . . . ■ - ■ • • -324 
Senate Reports, No. i, p. 2, 42d Congress, ist 
Session, 1871. 

PART X 

THE CATTLE INDUSTRY AND AGRICULTURE SINCE 
THE WAR 

LV Cattle Days in the West . ••••.•.•.• 327 

C. M. Harger: Cattle Trails of the Prairies, in 

'Scrihner's Magazine, 1892, Vol. XI, pp. 732- 

742 ; and W. Baillie Grohman : Cattle Ranches 

in the Far West, in the Fortnightly Review, 

1880, Vol. XXXIV, pp. 441 ff. 

LVI A Late Phase of the Settlement of the West 336 
The Opening of an Indian Reservation. William 
R Draper in Harper's Weekly, August 10, 
1901, Vol. XLV, p. 805. 
LVII The Agricultural Development and Progress of 

the Nation , V j : - '1 ^^^ 

H. de B. Gibbins: Econom-ic and Industrial 
Progress of the Century, pp. 405 ff- Bradley- 
Garretson Co., Brantford, Ontario, 1903; and 
C H Cochrane: Modern Industrial Progress, 
pp. 209 ff. J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 
1904. 



CONTENTS 
PART XI 



INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND ORGANIZATION 



CHAPTER 
LVIII 



LIX 



LX 



General Industrial Progress of the Country . 354 
H. de B. Gibbins : Economic and Industrial 
Progress of the Century, pp. 453 ff. Bradley- 
Garretson Co., Brantford, Ontario, 1903. 

How A Big Modern Business is Organized . . 362 
E. S. Meade: Trust Finance, pp. 198-211. D. 
Appleton and Co., New York, 1903. 

Causes of Trusts 369 

Report of the Industrial Commission, Vol, XIII, 
pp. v-vii. Government Printing Office, Wash- 
ington, 1 90 1. 



PART XII 

NATIONAL PROBLEMS 

LXI Great Wealth and Discontent 37s 

H. T. Peck: Twenty Years of the Republic, p. 
724. Dodd, Mead and Co., New York, 1907. 

LXII Immigration t,?^ 

J. H. Latane: America as a World Power, pp. 
285 fif. Harper and Brothers, New York, 1907. 

LXIII The City 379 

F. C. Howe: The City the Hope of Democracy, 
pp. 9-18; 280-288, passim. Charles Scribner's 
Sons, New York, 1905. 

LXIV The Direct Primary 385 

Iva Cross: Direct Primaries in The Arena, Vol. 
XXXV, p. 587, June, 1906. Published in The 
Primer of Direct Legislation, by Wm. H. 
Plunkett, Trenton, N. J. 

LXV Initiative, Referendum and Recall 390 

Jonathan Bourne, Jr. : Popular Government in 
Oregon, in The Outlook, 1910, Vol. XCVI, pp. 
322-330, passim. 

LXVI A Presidential Campaign 393 

W. B. Shaw: Methods and Tactics of the Cam- 
paign in the Review of Reviews, Vol. XIV, 
PP- 554-559 passim. New York, 1896. 

LXVII Publicity of Campaign Contributions .... 398 
R. C. Brooks : Corruption in American Politics 
and Life, pp. 233-237. Dodd, Mead and Co., 
New York, 1910. 



CONTENTS XV 

CHAPTER PAGE 

LXVIII Corrupt Practice Legislation 400 

S. Gale Lowrie: Corrupt Practices at Elections 
in American Political Science Review, 191 1, 
Vol. V, pp. 236 ff. 

LXIX The United States Amended Corrupt Practice 

Act 405 

Statutes of the United States, 62d Congress, 
1st Session, pp. 25-29. 

LXX The Inaugural Address of President Woodrow 

Wilson, March 4, 19 13 408 



READINGS IN THE HISTORY OF 
THE AMERICAN NATION 

PART I 
THE COLONIES 



THE ENGLISH SETTLER AND THE AMERICAN 
WILDERNESS 

Love of Nature in its wilder forms was not common to men 
of the seventeenth century, whether in Europe or America, and 
it is not strange, therefore, that we do not find the early settlers 
given up to admiring the forests or appreciating the beauties of 
the untamed wilderness. The following extract gives us some 
idea of how the settlers were affected by their surroundings. 

If there had been any love of Nature in the seventeenth 
century, American settlers would have shown some apprecia- 
tion of its aspects in a new world. But the prevailing senti- 
ment of the time was that Nature had long been steadily 
deteriorating, and that the everlasting frame of the universe 
was in a state of rack and decay. For the sublime in 
external Nature there was no taste. An accomplished 
English traveler in 1621 describes the " hideous " Alps, 
which he had crossed, as " uncouth, huge, monstrous excres- 
cences of Nature." This, we may suppose, represents the 
sentiment of English settlers toward the grand primeval wil- 
derness about them. *' Uncouth " is Captain John Smith's 
only epithet for the picturesque wilderness trails through 
which he marched ; and George Sandys, though a poet, never 
2 I 



2 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

seems to look upon the wilderness except as an obstruction 
and an enemy. The colonial verse writer does not suffer any 
intrusion into his meditations of the overawing effects of 
Nature, primitive and unsubdued, as he encountered it. 
What contemplation there is in the books and letters of the 
time expends itself on the supernatural, or revels in the 
merely grewsome. 

This " uncouth, huge, monstrous " wilderness puts its 
thumb mark on the character of the people otlrerwise than by 
contemplation. They grew up in the earlier generations 
woodsmen. Distinctively English characteristics fell away 
from them. The exigencies of a new country made them 
quick-witted and shifty. The dignity and repose of bearing 
that belong to a fixed po-sition in an older civilization were 
lost, for the time at least. The American was pushing, 
aggressive, inquisitive. He was also more open-minded than 
his ancestors ; a change of circumstances broke up the con- 
servative crust of centuries of English life. The " go " of a 
new country came into the new life and a hundred years 
after the early settlenrent of the colonies an English clergy- 
man in Virginia sketches the American as we have known 
him — nimble-witted, but less patient and profound than 
the Englishman. 

Edward Eggleston : The Transit of Civilization, pp. 126- 
127. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1901. 

Questions 

Why was the seventeenth century Englishman left unimpressed 
by the beauty of the American wilderness? With what feelings did 
he regard it? How did a few generations of life on the American 
frontier, near the wilderness, affect the settler mentally? 

II 

THE APPALACHIAN BARRIER 

The English settlements for a century and a half clustered 
close to tide water, while the French traversed the St. Law- 



THE COLONIES 3 

rence and Mississippi valleys from end to end and linked their 
settlements at Quebec and New Orleans with scattered villages 
in Illinois. The St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, and 
the Mississippi with its tributaries each in turn invited the 
canoe of the French explorer and adventurer, while the Ap- 
palachians repelled the English pioneer. A vivid mental pic- 
ture of the physical difficulties of crossing the mountains is 
necessary to an intelligent understanding of the history of the 
English colonies. 

It is difficult, in the present state of our control over this 
continent, to conceive the importance which lies in the facts 
concerning the original sites of the French and English settle- 
ments on the American shore. We now traverse this land in 
every direction with perfect ease ; as for the mountain bar- 
riers of the Appalachians, with their great forests and un- 
navigable streams, they now demand but a ton or two of 
coal to carry in one railway train a greater population than 
was ever at one time before the beginning of the eighteenth 
century imported to our coast. In those old days the Ap- 
palachian system, of mountains constituted a really im- 
passable zone extending from Georgia to the far north, 
broken only at one point by a navigable waterway and the 
great valley it occupies, the St. Lawrence basin and fiver. 
It is true that the Hudson in its principal tributary, the Mo- 
hawk, in a fashion divides the Appalachian axis, but it opens 
no pathway into the Mississippi Valley. The Mohawk is 
unnavigable, and the region about its headwaters contained, 
perhaps, the densest part of the Indian population north of 
the Ohio, composed of very vigorous and combative tribes.^ 

Although the Appalachians have peaks of no great height, 
their ranges are singularly continuous, and the passes 
formed by the streams in the numerous wall-like ridges 

1 The famous Iroquois Confederacy. The English regarded them 
as uncertain friends whose friendship was not to be in any way 
presumed on. The French dread of them is evidenced by the 
wide berth their explorers gave to the upper Ohio Valley till well 
into the eighteenth century. 



4 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

afforded in early days no natural ways whatever. From 
Maine to Alabama the woods were unbroken and impassable. 
This great Appalachian forest was, in primitive days, an 
exceedingly dense tangle. At a few points the aborigines 
had worn narrow footways through it ; but these trails were 
not adapted to pack animals, the original means of trans- 
portation brought by the Europeans, but were for the use of 
men who journeyed on foot, and could thus climb steeps 
inaccessible to a burdened beast. To add to the difficulties of 
the country, a large part of the district from central Penn- 
sylvania northward was bowlder strewn, affording no foot- 
ing for horses. Even in the present state of New England, 
where the superficial layer of glacial erratics has been to a 
great extent cleared away, it is easy to conceive how im- 
passable the surface must have been in early times. It 
required a century of enterprising, unrecorded labor to open 
the paths across the stony and swampy fields of New Eng- 
land to the valley of the Hudson. The undergrowth of this 
forest country is far more dense than that which is commonly 
found in European lands. The shrubby plants and the 
species of smilax or green briar and other creeping vines, 
make most of our Appalachian forests very nearly impass- 
able, even at the present day. 

N. S. Shaler: Nature and Man in America, pp. 194-5. 
Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1893. 

Questions 

What is the configuration of the Appalachian barrier? Where is 
the only wide depression in the mountains south of Canada? Why 
was it not open to settlers in the eighteenth century? What is the 
nature of the Appalachian forest? How has glacial action made 
progress through the wild country north of central Pennsylvania 
difficult ? 



THE COLONIES 5 

III 
THE PROBLEM OF THE ENGLISH POOR 

The development of sheep raising in the fifteenth and six- 
teenth centuries and the consequent use of plow land for 
pasturage and sheep-walks had thrown many agricultural 
laborers out of employment. There was, moreover, an indus- 
trial and social change going on in England, which was enter- 
ing on her great career as a sea power with extensive foreign 
trade. In this time of transition, as small land holding was dis- 
appearing, laborers did not readily find their place in the in- 
dustrial system, but prowled about we are told, " till the gal- 
lows did eat them." America offered an outlet, a chance for 
the unemployed. The facts of the existence of this class are 
summarized in the following extract. The New World from 
the beginning till now has been the place to which the poorer 
people of Europe have looked as a place where they might 
get on and up. 

The problem of England in the days of James I v^as how- 
to be rid of its poor. They had, many of them, been turned 
out of a living by the inclosure of commons in the mania 
for sheep husbandry, and some of them had had the villages 
pulled down about their ears. They were sent a-wandering, 
living as they could live by hook or by crook. Necessity 
made many of them rogues, and the desire to have done 
with rogues was so intense that England hanged its thieves 
out of hand. Henry VIII thought to be rid of such vermin 
of society, and he hanged, if we may believe Harrison, two 
and seventy thousand, including " great theeves, pettie 
theeves and roges." In Elizabeth's reign three or four 
hundred felons were eaten up annually by the gallows, and 
James I merrily carried on the work of extermination ; one 
reads of " twenty hanged up at a clap," in one place. But 
the vagabonds did not grow fewer. 

Recent serfdom had left its mark on the poor man. He 
had been freed, not from benevolence, nor from any motive 



6 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

having regard to the personality of the serf. Wickliffe 
and others had taught that it was meritorious to free a 
man from bondage who was a Christian — that is, who 
had been baptized. This scruple fitted to the churchly con- 
science of the age ; it grew more and more exigeant. '' We 
think it pious and meritorious with God to make certain 
persons absolutely free from the yoke of servitude who are 
at present under villenage to us," said Henry VIII. Eliza- 
beth and James, less scrupulous on this point, proposed to 
sell to those whose blood was tainted with slavery the priv- 
ileges of freedom. It was not till the eighteenth century 
had dawned that Chamberlayne's State of England, an an- 
nual publication, could drop its set phrase, " but few now 
in England," and say, " Now slavery is entirely thrown 
away and every Servant Man or Woman are properly, 
hired Servants." But the habit of regarding the peasant 
as a recent serf had its influence in the treatment of him. 

The " spirit," who was later called a crimp, was on the 
watch for him. Did they need more soldiers in Flanders? 
The spirit, by means best known to himself, packed off the 
poor man to Flanders. He was equally ready to ship him 
to any other country for a reward. The Virginia colony 
began to ask for people. The wilderness was hungry for 
laborers. The spirit shipped little children by the score 
down the Thames and off for America. Parents followed 
the vessels all the way to Gravesend, but the law would 
not help them; Virginia wanted laborers. Sometimes a 
parent could pay enough to get the lad released. Men 
were carried also to that abode of hopelessness. From the 
first there were two general classes : free apprentices, and 
convicts mostly for petty crimes. " Apprentices," says 
Chamberlayne, " are a sort of servant that carry the mask 
of Pure villains or Bond slaves, differing however in that 
Apprentices are slaves only for a term and by covenant." 

Edward' Eggleston: The Transit of Civili::ation, pp. 
293-295, passim. 



THE COLONIES 



Questions 



How had the numbers of the English poor been increased? How 
were they dealt with by the government? How did the presence 
of serfdom in England account for the presence of the poor? How 
did the "spirits" prey on this class in the community? 

IV 

THE FIRST LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY IN 
AMERICA 

This assembly was called by virtue of an order to that effect 
passed by the Virginia Company in London. It was not at 
the begiruiing recognized or authorized by the King; the right 
to make laws was the gift of the Company. The striking thing 
about the assembly as here described, is the readiness it showed 
and the capacity to perform its duties, as well as the orderli- 
ness with which it worked. 

The English colonists who first settled in America at 
Jamestown brought with them, by their charter, all the 
rights of Englishmen. But local self-government ^ was not 
accorded to the Virginians at first. They suffered great 
hardships for twelve years under what resembled a military 
government, until the year 1619, when the colony was 
deemed sufficiently grown to warrant an assembly. In that 
year Sir George Yeardley arrived with the commission of 
governor-general from the London Company, which had 
planted and governed the colony. Among his instructions 
was one, also called a commission, that brought joy to the 
hearts of the colonists. It was, as they described it, " that 
they might have a hande in the governinge of themselves, 
it was granted that a general assemblie should be helde 
yearly once, whereat were to be present the Gov^. and 
Counsel!, with two Burgesses from each plantation freely 
to be elected by the inhabitants thereof; this Assembly 
have power to make and ordaine whatsoever laws and 

iThe right to govern the colony themselves. 



8 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

orders should by them be thought good and proffittable for 
our subsistance." 

This commission, the real Magna Charta of V^irginia, 
was issued in London, the 28th of November, 1618. That 
night a flaming comet appeared in the heavens, which was 
considered then an ill omen, but which might more properly 
have been taken as a heavenly recognition of the great boon 
which had been bestowed on America. The comet was vis- 
ible till the 26th of December, and the prevailing supersti- 
tion prevented the sailing of Governor Yeardley till it was 
safely departed. He, therefore, sailed with his commission 
and instructions the 29th of January, 1619, more than a 
year before the sailing of the Pilgrims. 

In accordance with this commission, in June Governor 
Yeardley sent his summons all over the country, as well to 
invite those of the Council of State that were absent, as for 
the election of two burgesses from each of the plantations, 
to meet at Jamestown on the 30th of July, 1619. (O. S.) 
As this was the first legislative assembly which met in 
America, antedating by fifteen years the assembly of any 
other colony,^ and was the beginning of the free institutions 
which we now enjoy, I have thought it would be of interest 
to give some account of it and of its proceedings. 

The place of meeting was the Episcopal Church, a 
wooden building 60 feet long and 24 wide. Its communion 
table was of black walnut; its pulpit, chancel, and pews, 
of cedar. It had handsome wide windows, also made of 
cedar, which could be shut and opened according to the 
weather. A green velvet chair was placed in the choir, 
in which the governor sat. The building was so con- 
structed as to be very light within, and we are told that 
the governor caused it to be kept " passing sweet and 
trimmed up with divers flowers." The native Virginia 
flowers In season were doubtless used. There might be 

2 But business was transacted in the assembly of the men of 
Plymouth Colony long before the fifteen years had passed. 



THE COLONIES 9 

seen festoons of the trumpet creeper, with its splendid 
scarlet flower, mingled with sweet-smelling white honey- 
suckle and clematis, some of the latter with beautiful white 
clusters, and others with lovely bell-shaped leathery flow- 
ers, cream colored and touched with purple ; while the pul- 
pit and communion table were decked with pink sweetbrier 
and swamp roses, and red swamp lilies. 

On the memorable morning of the 30th of July, 1619, 
the governor went in state to the church. He was accom- 
panied by the councilors and officers of the colony, with a 
guard of halberdiers dressed in the governor's livery. Be- 
hind them walked, with becoming dignity, the 22 newly 
elected burgesses. 

In the contemporaneous account sent to England by the 
speaker, we are told : *' The most convenient place we 
could finde to sitt in was the Quire ^ of the Church, where 
Sir George Yeardley, the Governour, being sett down in 
his accustomed place, those of the Counsel of Estate sat© 
nexte him on both handes, excepte only the Secretary, then 
appointed Speaker, who sate right before him, John Twine, 
Gierke of the General Assembly, being placed nexte the 
Speaker, and Thomas Pierse, the Sergeant, standing at 
the barre, to be ready for any service the Assembly shoulde 
command him. But forasmuche as men's affaires doe little 
prosper where God's service is neglected, all the Burgesses 
tooke their places in the Quire till a prayer was said by 
Mr. Bucke, the minister, that it would please God to guide 
and sanctifie all our proceedings to his owne glory, and 
the good of his plantation. Prayer being ended, to the in- 
tente that as we had begun at God Almighty, so we might 
proceed with awful and due respecte towards the Lieuten- 
ant, our most gratious and dread Soveraigne, all the Bur- 
gesses were intreated to retyre themselves into the body of 
the Churche, which being done, before they were freely 
admitted, they were called to order and by name, and so 

3 Same as choir. 



lO READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

every man (none staggering at it) tooke the oathe of 
Supremacy,* and then entered the Assembly." . . . 

When we look at the acts of this body we are struck 
with their just conception of their rights as an assembly. 
They asserted the right to judge of the election and return 
of their members, and, in its exercise, excluded the dele- 
gates sent from the plantation of Capt. John Martin, be- 
cause, by the terms of his patent, he appeared to be exempt 
from the general form of government which had been 
given the colony; and, in addition, they petitioned the Lon- 
don Company that they would examine the patent of Capt. 
Martin, and " in case they shall finde anything in this, or 
in any other parte of his graunte whereby that clause to- 
wardes the conclusion of the great charter (viz., that all 
grauntes, as well of the one sorte as of the other, respec- 
tively, be made with equal favour, and graunts of like lib- 
erties and immunities as neer as may be, to the ende that 
all complainte of partiality and indifferency may be 
avoided) might in any sorte be contradicted, or the uni- 
formity and equality of lawes and orders extending over 
the whole Colony might be impeached ; that they would be 
pleased to remove any such hindrance as may diverte out 
of the true course the free and public current of Justice." 
Thus early did Virginia insist upon the equality of her citi- 
zens before the law, a principle inserted in her declaration 
of rights in 1776, when she became a State, in the provisions, 
" that no man or set of men are entitled to exclusive or 
separate emoluments or privileges from the community, 
but in consideration of public services ; " and, *' that the 
people have a right to uniform government, and therefore 
that no government separate from or independent of the 
government of Virginia ought to be erected or established 
within the limits thereof." 



4 Acknowledgment of the king as head of the EngHsh Church. 
Failure to receive it might have laid a man open to suspicion of 
Catholicism. 



THE COLONIES II 

Having thus purged their roll, the assembly proceeded 
according to their speaker's report, as follows : " The 
Speaker, who a long time had been extreame sickly, and 
therefore not able to passe through long harangues, deliv- 
ered in briefe to the whole assembly the occasions of their 
meetings. Which done, he read unto them the commis- 
sion for establishing the counsell of estate, and the general 
assembly, wherein their duties were described to the life. 
Having thus prepared them, he read over unto them the 
greate Charter, or commission of priviledges, orders, and 
lawes, sent by Sir George Yeardley out of Englande ; 
w^hich, for the more ease of the committees, having divided 
into fower books, he read the former two the same fore- 
noon, for expeditions sake, a second time over, and so they 
were referred to the perusall of two committees, which did 
reciprocally consider of either, and accordingly brought in 
their opinions ... in case we should finde ought not per- 
fectly squaring with the state of this Colony, or any lawe 
which did presse or binde too harde, that we might, by 
waye of humble petition, seeke to have it redressed, espe- 
cially because this great Charter is to binde us and our 
heyers forever." 

Nothing can throw a clearer light on the state of the 
colony than the acts of this assembly ; and in them we can 
discern the germs of the free institutions of the United 
States of to-day, germs which reappeared in the colonies 
subsequently planted. . . . 

The question of the validity of the acts of the assembly, 
till they were disallowed by the authorities in England, was 
one which was unsettled in the year 1758, when the act 
passed which permitted debts contracted to be paid in to- 
bacco to be solved in currency at a fixed rate, the resistance 
to which, by the clergy gave rise to the famous " Parson's 
cause." The power to disallow the orders of the London 
Company was a great stride in the direction of independent 
local government, and the promise of it by the London 
Company shows to what extent the spirit of liberty was 



12 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

nourished in that celebrated body during the arbitrary 
reign of James the First, a fact that excited his hatred of 
the corporation and caused him to take from it its charter. 

William Wirt Henry: The First Legislative Assembly 
in America, in Report of American Historical Association, 
1893, pp. 302-304; 309-10; 314. 

Questions 

How was the first assembly of Virginia authorized? What 
powers was it to have? Describe the manner in which the different 
elements of the assembly were seated. How was its first meeting be- 
gun? Where was the assembly held? How did the assembly as- 
sert the right to judge of the quahfications of its members? In 
what sense did the assembly vindicate the equality of all citizens 
before the law? How far did the assembly claim the right of re- 
vising the great charter or body of laws? 



THE PILGRIIM COUNTRY 

The sketches of the characters and influence of Brewster 
and Robinson could not be bettered. The author's conclusion 
that the Pilgrim Fathers, before falling under the influence 
of Brewster and Robinson, were but common folk no more 
intelligent or inspired in their own generation than the Scrooby 
folk are to-day is assumed rather than proved. There is such 
a thing as the removal of the best and most intellectual families 
of a village by successive migrations. At any rate, even in the 
seventeenth century, uneducated Englishmen showed ability 
to assimilate new ideas very quickly. Robinson and Brewster 
perhaps supplied at the first the moral stamina that induced 
the Pilgrims to cling through thick and thin to their beliefs. 

On the southern margin of Yorkshire the traveler 
alights to-day at the station of Bawtry. It is an uninter- 
esting village, v^ith a rustic inn. More than a mile to the 
southward, in Nottinghamshire, lies the pleasant but com- 
monplace village of Scrooby. About a mile to the north 



THE COLONIES 13 

of Bawtry is Austerfield, a hamlet of brick villages 
crowded together along the road. It has a picturesque 
little church built in the Middle Ages, the walls of which 
are three feet thick. This church will seat more than a 
hundred people nowadays by the aid of a rather modern 
extension. In the seventeenth century it was smaller and 
there was no ceiling. Then one could see the rafters of 
the roof while shuddering with cold in the grotto-like in- 
terior. The country around is level and unpicturesque. 

But one is here in the cradle of great religious move- 
ments. In Scrooby and in Austerfield were born the Pil- 
grims who made the first successful settlement in New 
England. A little to the east lies Gainsborough, from 
which migrated to Holland in 1606 the saintly Separatist, 
John Smyth, who gave form to a great Baptist movement of 
modern times. A few miles to the northeast of Bawtry, 
in Lincolnshire, lies Epworth, the nest from which the 
Wesleys issued more than a hundred years later to spread 
Methodism over the world. Religious zeal seems to have 
characterized this region even before the Reformation, for 
the country round about Scrooby was occupied at that time 
by a number of religious houses. 

The little Austerfield church and the old church at 
Scrooby are the only picturesque or romantic elements of 
the environment, and on these churches the Pilgrims turned 
their backs as though they had been temples of Baal. In 
the single street of Austerfield the traveler meets the cot- 
tagers to-day and essays to talk with them. They are 
heavy and somewhat stolid, like most other rustic people 
in the north country, and an accent to which their ears 
are not accustomed amuses and puzzles them. No tradi- 
tion of the Pilgrims lingers among them. They have never 
heard that anybody ever went out of Austerfield to do any- 
thing historical. They listen with a bovine surprise if you 
speak to them of this exodus, and they refer you to the old 
clerk of the parish, who will know all about it. The ven- 
erable clerk is a striking figure^ not unlike that parish 



14 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

clerk painted by Gainsborough. This oracle of the hamlet 
knows that Americans come here as on a pilgrimage, and 
he tells you that one of them, a descendant of Governor 
Bradford, offered a considerable sum for the disused stone 
font at which Bradford, the Pilgrim, was baptized. But 
the traveler turns away at length from the rustic folk of 
Austerfield and the beer-drinkers over their mugs in the 
inn at Bawtry, and the villagers at Scrooby, benumbed by 
that sense of utter commonplaceness which is left on the 
mind of the stranger by such an agricultural community. 
The Pilgrims, then, concerning whom poems have been writ- 
ten, and in whose honor orations without number have been 
made, were just common folk like these, trudging through 
wheat fields and along the muddy clay highways of the 
days of Elizabeth and James. They were just such men 
as these and they were not. They were such as these 
would be if they were vivified by enthusiasm. We may 
laugh at superfluous scruples in rustic minds, but none will 
smile at brave and stubborn loyalty to an idea when it pro- 
duces such steadfast courage as that of the Pilgrims. 

And yet when the traveler has resumed his journey, and 
recalls Scrooby and Bawtry and Austerfield, the stolid men 
and gossiping women, the narrow pursuits of the plowman 
and the reaper, and remembers the flat, naked, and depress- 
ing landscape, he is beset by the old skepticism about the 
coming of anything good out of Nazareth. Nor is he 
helped by remembering that at the time of Bradford's 
christening at the old stone font the inhabitants of Auster- 
field are said to have been '' a most ignorant and licentious 
people," and that earlier in the same century John Leland 
speaks of '' the meane townlet of Scrooby." 

But Leland's description of the village suggests the in- 
fluence that caused Scrooby and the wheat fields thereabout 
to send forth, in the beginning of the seventeenth century 
and of a new reign, men capable of courage and fortitude 
sufficient to make them memorable, and to make these three 
townlets places of pilgrimage in following centuries. 



THE COLONIES 15 

" In the meane townlet of Scrooby, I marked two things," 
— it is Leland who writes, — '' the parish church not big 
but very well builded ; the second was a great manor-place, 
standing within a moat, and longing to the Archbishop of 
York." This large old manor-place he describes with its 
outer and inner court. In this manor-place, about half a 
century after Leland saw it, there lived William Brewster. 
He was a man of education who had been for a short time 
in residence at Cambridge ; he had served as one of the 
under secretaries of state for years ; had been intrusted 
beyond all others by Secretary Davison, his patron ; and, 
when Elizabeth disgraced Davison in order to avoid re- 
sponsibility for the death of Mary of Scotland, Brewster 
had been the one friend who clung to the fallen secretary 
as long as there was opportunity to do him service. Mak- 
ing no further effort to establish himself at court, Brew- 
ster went after a while " to live in the country in good 
esteeme amongst his friends and the good gentle-men of 
those parts, espetially the godly and religious." His abode 
after his retirement was the old manor-place now destroyed, 
but then the most conspicuous building at Scrooby. It 
belonged in his time to Sir Samuel Sandys, the elder 
brother of Sir Edwin Sandys, whose work as the master 
spirit in the later history of the Virginia Company of Lon- 
don has already been recounted. At Scrooby, Brewster 
succeeded his father in the office of " Post," an office that 
obliged him to receive and deliver letters for a wide district 
of country, to keep relays of horses for travelers by post 
on the great route to the north, and to furnish inn accom- 
modations. In the master of the post at Scrooby we have 
the first of those influences that lifted a group of people 
from this rustic region into historic importance. He had 
been acquainted with the great world, and had borne a 
responsible if not a conspicuous part in delicate diplomatic 
affairs in the Netherlands. At court, as at Scrooby, he 
was a Puritan, and now in his retirement his energies 
were devoted to the promotion of religion. He secured 



l6 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

earnest ministers for many of the neighboring parishes. 
But that which he builded the authorities tore down. 
Whitgift was archbishop, and the High Commission Courts 
were proceeding against Puritans with the energy of the 
Spanish Inquisition. '' The godly preachers " about him 
were silenced. The people who followed them were pro- 
scribed, and all the pains and expense of Brewster and his 
Puritan friends in establishing religion as they understood 
it were likely to be rendered futile by the governors of the 
church. '* He and many more of those times begane to 
look further into things," says Bradford. Persecution be- 
got Separatism. The theory was the result of conditions 
as new theories are wont to be. 

Here, as elsewhere, the secession appears to have begun 
with meetings for devotion. By this supposition we may 
reconcile two dates which have been supposed to conflict, 
conjecturing that in 1602, when Brewster had lived about 
fifteen years in the old manor-house, his neighbors, who 
did not care to attend the ministry of ignorant and licen- 
tious priests, began to spend whole Sundays together, now 
in one place and now in another, but most frequently in 
the old manor-house builded within a moat, and reached by 
ascending a flight of stone steps. Here Brewster's hospi- 
tality was dispensed to them freely. They may or may 
not have been members of the Separatist church at Gains- 
borough, as some have supposed. It was not until 1606 
that these people formed the fully organized Separatist 
church of Scrooby. It was organized after the Barrow- 
ist ^ pattern that had originated in London — it was after 

1 Modeled after the plan of church government of William 
Barrow, who Hke Browne, lived in the time of Queen Elizabeth and 
died in her time, too, for he was executed in 1593. Barrow's plan 
differed probably from the system of church government devised by 
Robert Browne in vesting more authority in the officers of the 
church. Browne and Barrow were alike Separatists in holding 
that it was the duty of the godly to give up their membership in 
the Church of England and to become members of little congre- 
gations, each one in itself an independent church. The- Separatists 



THE COLONIES 17 

a divine pattern, according to their belief. Brewster, the 
nucleus of the church, became their ruling elder. 

It was in these all-day meetings that the Separatist rus- 
tics of Scrooby were molded for suffering and endeavor. 
The humble, modest, conscientious Brewster was the king- 
post of the new church — the first and longest enduring 
of the influences that shaped the character of these people 
in England, Holland, and America. Brewster could prob- 
ably have returned to the court under other auspices after 
Davison's fall, but as master of the post at Scrooby, then 
as a teacher and founder of a printing oflice of prohibited 
books in Leyden, and finally as a settler in the wilderness, 
inuring his soft hands to rude toils, until he died in his 
cabin an octogenarian, he led a life strangely different from 
that of a courtier. But no career possible to him at court 
could have been so useful or so long remembered. 

But Brewster was not the master spirit. About the time 
the Separatists of Scrooby completed their church organi- 
zation in 1606, there came to it John Robinson. He had 
been a fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and a 
beneficed clergyman of Puritan views. He, too, had been 
slowly propelled to Separatist opinion by persecution. For 
fourteen years before the final migration, he led the Pil- 
grims at Scrooby and Leyden. Wise man of affairs, he 
directed his people even in their hard struggle for bread in 
a foreign country. He was one of the few men, in that 
age of debate about husks and shells, who penetrated to 
those teachings concerning character and conduct which 
are the vital and imperishable elements of religion. Even 
when assailed most roughly in debate he was magnanimous 
and forbearing. He avoided the bigotry and bitterness of 
the early Brownists, and outgrew as years went on the 

differed as to how far it was right for them to join in religious 
exercises with those who still remained in the Church of Eng- 
land. The essence of the beHef was that any number of people, no 
matter how small the number, could of themselves, without au- 
thority, or direction from above, form a church. 
3 



l8 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

narrowness of rigid Separatism. He lived on the best 
terms with the Dutch and French churches. He opposed 
rather the substantial abuses than the ceremonies of the 
church of England, and as life advanced he came to extend 
a hearty, fellowship and communion to good men in that 
church. Had it been his lot to remain in the national 
church and rise, as did his opponent, Joseph Hall, to the 
pedestal of a bishopric or to other dignity, he would have 
been one of the most illustrious divines of the age — want- 
ing some of the statesmanly breadth of Hooker, but quite 
outspreading and overtopping the Whitgifts, Bancrofts, and 
perhaps even the Halls. Robert Baillie, who could say 
many hard things against the Separatists, is forced to con- 
fess that " Robinson was a man of excellent parts and the 
most learned, polished and modest spirit that ever separated 
from the church of England " ; and long after his death 
the Dutch theologian Hornbeeck recalls again and again 
his integrity, learning, and modesty. 

Shall we say that when subjected to this great man's 
influence the rustics of Scrooby and Bawtry and Auster- 
field were clowns no longer? Perhaps we shall be truer 
to the probabilities of human nature if we conclude that 
Robinson was able to mold a few of the best of them to 
great uses, and that these became the significant digits 
which gave value to the ciphers. 

Edward Eggleston : The Beginners of a Nation, pp. 
149-157. D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1896. 

Questions 

Explain the statement that in the country around Scrooby, " we 
are in the cradle of great reHgious movements." Do the people of 
the " Pilgrim country " seem men of the same kind we ordinarily 
suppose the Pilgrims to have been? Sketch the career of William 
Brewster. How may the Pilgrims have been transformed by the 
influence of William Brewster and John Robinson? How did 
the Separatist Church of the Pilgrims gather around Brewster in the 
manor house at Scrooby? 



THE COLONIES IQ 

VI 

WITCHCRAFT 

The Puritans of Massachusetts were by no means alone in 
this dread of the malign and mischievous influences of un- 
fortunate people who had had dealings with Satan; the belief 
in witchcraft was commonly held in Europe and America. 
The selection which is here given suggests the elements on 
which the witchcraft delusion in Salem rested; there was no 
knowledge then of hysteria or hypnotic suggestion — to use 
words which we often hear now; the people not only believed, 
but intensely believed, in the activities of a personal evil 
spirit, who sought with unending diligence to bring the un- 
wary under his control. Life in one of these small New Eng- 
land towns, between the forest and the hungry sea, was likely 
to be monotonous and narrow and unrelieved by natural whole- 
some distractions ; it gave the best opportunity for the develop- 
ment of hysterical conditions and for the cherishing of de- 
lusions, to which a whole community might fall a ready victim. 

The notion of house-haunting demons — a superstition 
the most nearly a survival from the days of the elves and 
brownies — crossed the sea with the early emigrants. One 
such spirit in Newbury in New Hampshire, in 1679, threw 
sticks and stones on the roof of the house, lifted up the 
bedstead from the floor, threw the bedstaff out the window, 
threw a cat at the mistress of the house and beat the good- 
man over the head with a broom, made the pole on which 
the kettles were hung to dance up and down in the chim- 
ney, tossed a potlid into the fire, set a chair in the middle 
of the table when dinner was served, seasoned the victuals 
with ashes, filled a pair of shoes with hot ashes, ran away 
with an inkhorn, threw a ladder against a door, and put an 
awl into the bed. ... In Hartford, in 1683, there was a 
gentle devil with a taste for flinging corncobs through the 
windows and down the chimney. Stones and sticks were 
sometimes thrown, but softly so as to do no serious harm. 



20 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

When the occupant of the haunted house returned to its 
owner a chest of clothes unjustly detained, no more corn- 
cobs were thrown. In Portsmouth it rained stones out- 
doors and in at the house of George Walton, and, what 
is curious, some of these stones were hot. Glass windows 
were shattered, and a stirrup iron traveled off on its own 
motion without horse or rider and was never again seen. 
Sometimes a hollow whistling sound was heard. This 
whistling devil amused himself like a true brownie by 
hanging the haycocks up in the trees and decorating the 
kitchen " all up and down " with wisps of hay. Sometimes 
the chains were sufficiently lengthened for a New Eng- 
land demon to become visible. One appeared as a " black- 
a-moor child," another as a woman clad in green safe- 
guard, short blue cloak, and white cap. Once the black 
cat, so dear to tradition, appeared and was shot at; again 
the head of a man was seen swimming through the water, 
followed a little way off by the tail of a white cat. These 
American devils with their undiabolical sense of humor 
have at least a family likeness to the mischievous elves, 
pucks, brownies, and other " tricksy sprites " with which 
the English imagination peopled lonesome glens and the 
dark corners of their houses in primitve times. Whether 
the later demons were creatures of excited fancy or of 
imposture, or both, they were cast in molds supplied by 
ancient tradition. 

The phenomena known in later times as hysteria, and as 
mesmerism and hypnotism, were not yet recognized to be 
due to natural causes. The infinitely delicate shadings by 
which mental sanity passes without any line of demarca- 
tion into madness could not then be imagined. A belief in 
demoniacal possession was almost unavoidable. That men 
and women might be " obsess'ed with caco-demons," in the 
pedantic phrase of the time, had the sanction of the ages, 
of religion, and of science itself. Only the most hardy 
intellects ventured to question an opinion so well supported. 

In the Massachusetts town of Groton, in 1671, occurred 



THE COLOXTES 21 

a case of well-defined hysteria. The village minister 
naturally concluded that the violent contortions and " rav- 
ings " of the patient, Elizabeth Knap, " represented a dark 
resemblance to hellish torments." \\'hen in one of her fits 
she cried out, ''What cheer, old man?" to whom could 
she be speaking if not to the devil? Like many other 
hysterical sufferers, she was susceptible to hypnotic sug- 
gestion, and in answer to leading questions she was able to 
remember having made the compact with Satan always 
presupposed in such cases. This in saner moments she 
retracted, as she did also accusations of witchcraft made 
against others in reply to probing inquiries. She once de- 
scribed to the shuddering bystanders a witch visible to her 
at that moment, having a dog's body and a woman's head, 
running through the room and climbing up the chimney. 
Good Parson Willard and others present found all this so 
exciting that they, though unable to see the apparition, 
could detect the imprint of a dog's foot in the clay daubing 
of the chimney. 

Worst element of all in this delusion was the mistaken 
zeal of the clergy. Ministers of differing creeds agreed 
in believing that the palpable evidences of spiritual exist- 
ence afforded by witchcraft might serve to vanquish the 
ever present skepticism regarding the supernatural. 
Squalid tales gathered at witch trials, many of them foul 
and revolting as well as unbelievable, were disseminated as 
religious reading, in hope that they might prove a means 
of grace by revulsion. If any man had the courage to 
question the supernatural character of these disgusting ap- 
paritions, he found himself gazetted in the authoritative 
writings of eminent divines as a Sadducee, a patron of 
witches, and a witch advocate ; if he took a neutral position 
for safety, averring the existence of witchcraft but deny- 
ing the possibility of proving it in particular cases, he was 
dubbed a " nullibist." This in America as well as in Eng- 
land. A new case of witchcraft did not excite pity, but 
something like exultation. ... By this array of frightful 



22 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

diabolism it was hoped that the swelling tide of gross im- 
morality might be checked and religion promoted, for the 
appeal of religion in that day was to fear rather than to 
aspiration ; the peril of trying to kindle altar fires with em- 
bers from hell was not understood. 

Salem village, an outlying suburb, two or three miles 
from Salem proper, was almost a frontier town in 1692. 
Men still wore buckskin breeches and hats with a brim 
narrow in front and long behind. Wolves, bears, and cata- 
mounts were trapped. Some of the settlers had partici- 
pated in the desperate battle at the Narragansetts' town 
sixteen years before. The sword and the rapier were still 
worn at the side, the fowling piece six and seven feet in 
length was in use. Men had been killed by the Indians in 
the bounds of Salem within three years. Education was 
generally neglected ; even men of substance were sometimes 
unable to write. The old patriarchs who had made the 
settlement had just died off; the community had lost its 
steadfast guides. New clergymen had come in and new 
magistrates, not with the education of England, but with 
the scantier training of New England — a training in 
which the felling ax was more important than the Latin 
grammar. The new clergy, men of the second and third 
generations, were, with a few exceptions, profoundly im- 
pressed with the necessity of believing anything ghostly or 
horrible ; the supernatural was the basis of their piety. 
Increase Mather . . . had published books on the ominous 
eclipses of 1680 and 1682, and another in 1686 on Illus- 
trious Providences, which was a storehouse of those 
dragons' teeth that bore such ample fruit in 1692. His 
abler but less judicious son. Cotton, had issued a book on 
" Memorable Providences relating to witchcraft and Pos- 
sessions." It had come to a second edition in the very 
year before the horrors of Salem. 

The village of Salem had the elements needed for a 
witchcraft mania — a quarrel between minister and people ; 
a circle of young girls from eleven to twenty, including 



THE COLONIES 23 

some who worked as helps, who met at the minister's 
house and practiced together folk-sorcery and that kind of 
divining that has been the amusement of such for ages. 
These girls soon began to manifest symptoms of hysteria 
and hypnotism ; one or two married women also had " fits " 
in sympathy with them. A doctor called to attend them 
decided that they were afflicted by " an evil hand." There 
was some heartless and heedless imposture, no doubt, in 
what followed, but there was also much of self-deception. 

The glimpses of the infernal world that we get in Salem 
are highly incredible. The witches say prayers to a tall 
black man with a high-crowned hat — always with a high- 
crowned hat. They ride on sticks and poles, sometimes 
they are on brooms, and sometimes three are on one pole. 
One relates that a pole carrying two broke, but, by holding 
fast to the one in front of her, the witch got safe to her 
destination. . . . Sometimes a hog, sometimes a black dog, 
appears and says, " Serve me." Then the dog or pig 
" looks like a man," and this man has a yellow bird. Cats 
naturally abound, white cats and red cats and cats without 
color. Once a man struck with a rapier at a place desig- 
nated by one of the girls, and she declared the cat dead 
and the floor to be all covered with blood. But no one 
else saw it. This is probably hypnotism, hardly imposture. 
A great mass of such inconsequent and paltry foolery was 
believed, not alone by owl-blasted children, but by 
Stoughton and the other judges, and by pious Samuel Sew- 
all himself, more's the pity ! Where is the motive ? What 
prompted the most eminent Christians and leading citizens 
to prefer so base a life — companions to cats and dogs and 
devils? Why did this torture of innocent children, this 
mischief-working witchcraft with endless perdition at the 
tail of it, give pleasure to rational creatures? The court 
never once thought to ask. 

The trial scenes were perdition. The " afflicted chil- 
dren " screamed, went into spasms, shouted, charged the 
prisoners with torturing them, and their apparent torments 



24 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

were frightful. They laid to the charge of the accused 
unheard-of deviltries, such as the killing of wives long 
dead, attempting to choke aged grandparents, and what not 
besides. Husbands in some instances turned against wives ; 
in others they adhered to them, were accused themselves, 
and died with them. 

The trials were accompanied by great cruelties. Of- 
ficers of the law were allowed to plunder the estates of the 
accused of all movable property. The prisoners had to 
pay their jail expenses, and many families were utterly 
impoverished. Prisoners were cast into the dungeon and 
were " fettered." Goodman Hutchinson complained of 
certain prisoners for tormenting his wife ; additional fet- 
ters were put on them, after which Mrs. Hutchinson was 
*' tolerable well." Some were tortured to make them con- 
fess; lads were laid neck and heels until the blood gushed 
from their noses. These were accredited practices at the 
time. Several died in prison. 

The very skill of the accused was against them. One 
very neat woman walked miles over dirty roads without 
showing any mud. '' I scorn to be drabbled," she said, and 
she was hanged for her cleanliness. George Burroughs, 
the minister, was a strong man, much addicted to gymnas- 
tics. He carried barrels of cider by inserting his fingers 
into the bunghole, and held a seven-foot gun at arm's 
length. He was the devil's man, away with him to the 
gallows ! The first people in the colony became involved. 
Twenty in all were executed, four or five at a time. Their 
bodies were ignominiously thrust into holes at the place 
where they were executed and were scantily covered. 

There were brave men and women among them. Giles 
Corey, an eccentric old man, had at first signed an affidavit 
of uncertainty about his wife, a woman of piety, and, 
strange to say, an entire unbeliever in witchcraft. Two 
of his sons-in-law turned against her, two were for her. 
But when old Giles was accused he stiffened his neck. 
He would save his property, which was considerable and 



THE COLONIES 25 

might be compromised; he would will it all to his two 
faithful sons-in-law. He would prove his steadfastness. 
He made a will, perfect in every part, giving his property 
to the sons-in-law, and then totally refused to plead and 
was slowly pressed to death.^ The constancy of the old 
man did much to overthrow the partisans of witchcraft. 
Joseph Putnam, a young man of twenty-two, declared his 
detestation of the doctrine. He kept some one of his 
horses bridled and saddled for six months. He armed all 
his family, and it was understood that he must be taken, if 
taken at all, pistol in hand. When the mania was at its 
height he refused to have his child baptized in the village, 
but carried it to Salem. 

The excitement had risen with every arrest. More than 
fifty badgered souls had confessed that they were witches. 
Some had fled the country. But the wide extent of the 
accusations produced a change in the minds of the people. 
They knew not who would be struck at next. The gov- 
ernor at length refused to call the special court together, 
and after a tedious confinement a hundred and fifty were 
released by proclamation. The population of Salem had 
decreased, its business had suffered, and perhaps it never 
recovered its prosperity. Slowly the people got over the 
delusion and came to realize the incalculable and irretriev- 
able harm that had been wrought. Judge Sewall, at a 
general fast, handed up to the minister to be read a humble 
confession, and stood while it was read. He annually kept 
a private day of humiliation. Honor to his memory ! The 
twelve jurymen also signed an affecting paper asking to be 

1 By the English law, if a man were condemned of a crime like 
witchcraft, his personal property was confiscated. But sentence 
of condemnation would not be pronounced against him until he 
had pleaded guilty or not guilty. If he refused to plead, he was 
put under heavy weights until he either gave way and pleaded or 
was crushed to death. If a man remained steadfast to the death 
in his refusal, he saved his property from confiscation ; for as 
he had not pleaded, he had not been tried and could not be con- 
demned. 



26 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

forgiven. Cotton Mather, who had been very conspicuous 
and had pubhshed a book about it, never acknowledged 
himself wrong in this or any other matter. From the 
time it became unpopular he speaks of the witchcraft trials 
in a far-away manner, as if they were wholly the work of 
someone else. He was never forgiven, and probably never 
ought to have been. 

The revulsion was complete. No witches were tried or 
hanged or '' swimmed " in America after the Salem trials. 
In half a lifetime more the ardor of the English people 
visibly abated, and few witches were thereafter arrested 
in England. 

Edward Eggleston: The Transit of Civilization, pp. 
25-34. 

Questions 

Illustrate the belief in the supernatural in New England: (a) as 
to elves and brownies (b) as to demonic possession. What would 
we call the latter to-day? What use did the ministers try to make 
of cases of witchcraft? What in the life of Salem in 1692 made 
the witchcraft delusion possible? How did the mania start? What 
sorts of tales of witchcraft were told? State some of the grounds 
on which people were condemned. What was the end of the de- 
lusion ? 

VII 

COLONIAL SCHOOLS AND A COLONIAL 
COLLEGE 

By comparison of such notices as we have of American 
schools with the English schools of the period, we can 
form a fairly clear conception of the outward traits of 
school life in the age of American settlement. We may 
dimly see the unwilling boy '' with shining morning face " 
and a lambskin satchel setting out for school, breakfast- 
less, in the dark winter mornings in time to begin his 
studies at the unchristian hour of six o'clock. Some 
schools postponed the hour of beginning until seven. The 



THE COLONIES 27 

session ended at eleven, when the famished pupils went 
home to their first meal, though in a few schools there 
was a recess of fifteen minutes at nine o'clock in order 
that those who lived near the school might snatch a hur- 
ried breakfast, a meal not generally reckoned with at that 
time. There was a custom in earlier times of allowing 
the fasting pupils to take some light food in school with 
bottles of drink, but if the custom survived into the seven- 
teenth century it left no trace in educational literature. 
The session was resumed for the afternoon when the mas- 
ter rapped on the doorpost at one o'clock, and it continued 
until " well-nigh six at night," when the scholars, who 
must have been stupefied by an all-day confinement, heard 
the welcome word of dismission, " Exeatis." In a new 
country the rough roads and long distances must have 
made it next to impossible to begin in the dark at six in 
the winter. By 17 19 the hour had fallen away in one place 
to '' three quarters past seven." One finds the pupils of 
Christopher Dock, the Pennsylvania Dutch teacher, munch- 
ing their " breakfast bread " along the road as they hurried 
to school at some unearthly time, and back-country schools 
in America retained cruelly long hours, with other cher- 
ished and venerable abuses brought from Europe, until the 
middle of the nineteenth century. In the early years of 
Harvard an hour was allowed at some time in the middle 
of the forenoon for morning bever, a light snack preceded 
by no breakfast. Half an hour was given to the afternoon 
bever, and an hour and a half each to dinner and supper. 
Small allowance was made for the activity of youth. 
There were no regular recesses for play in any of the 
schools. On occasion a great man would lend his coun- 
tenance to the school by a formal visit; at such a time he 
might crave a little grace for the prisoners of learning; a 
half holiday was granted at his request and in honor of 
his advent. Such playtimes were of old called " reme- 
dyes," but austere Dean Colet would not allow to the pupils 
of his new foundation of St. Paul's a playday at the re- 



28 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

quest of anybody less than a king or a prelate. It was 
thought best to cut off this ancient privilege wholly at the 
little Virginia college ; there were probably too many vis- 
itors of distinction; but one afternoon a month was set 
apart for play, and whenever a new student was enrolled 
'' an afternoon extraordinary " was granted, *' and no 
more." . . . 

After the Restoration, Virginia began to feel an alarm 
like that which had startled Massachusetts earlier. It is 
probable that the deprived churchmen who occupied Vir- 
ginia parishes during the Commonwealth were now re- 
turning to England to reap the reward of their fidelity to 
the king. It was feared that the '' want of able & faith- 
ful Ministers " would deprive the colonists of '* those great 
Blessings and Mercies that allwaies attend upon the Serv- 
ice of God," and the Assembly passed an act in 1661, and 
again in 1662, to found " a colledge and free schoole." 
But Sir William Berkeley, the governor, did not want 
either a college or a free school, and Berkeley, with a sal- 
ary independent of the good will of the people, was more 
absolute in Virginia than his master Charles was in Eng- 
land. This pinchbeck Stuart detested ministers who were 
able to preach, and he abhorred printing presses. But the 
Virginia educational movement at the time of the Restora- 
tion was not wholly without result. If the proposed sub- 
scription for the college was ever taken, it probably was 
not collected, and the " houseing " ordered to be erected 
for the college is not again heard of. But at least two 
bequests to found new free schools were made in Berke- 
ley's depressing reign. After the disorders and despotisms 
which followed the failure of Nathaniel Bacon's bold stroke 
for freedom in 1676 had passed away, a college subscrip- 
tion was set on foot in 1688 and 1689, and sums amount- 
ing to twenty-five hundred pounds were promised by 
wealthy Virginians and a few English merchants. The 
confusion resulting from the English Revolution of 1688 



THE COLONIES 29 

probably caused delay. Two years more elapsed before 
the Assembly took action by ordaining an institution in 
three departments — a grammar school, a school of 
philosophy, and a school of Oriental languages and divinity. 
A charter was secured from the sovereigns. William and 
Mary, whose names the college took, gave freely out of the 
wild lands of the province, out of the royal revenues from 
tobacco, and gave outright the income from the fees for 
surveying land. The Virginia Assembly added an im- 
port duty on furs. In 1700, while the building designed 
by Sir Christopher Wren was yet unfinished, the college 
at the close of its first year held a commencement. The 
novelty of such an exercise attracted a large concourse of 
people to the new town of Williamsburg. Some of the 
great planters came in coaches, which vehicles were yet 
rare enough in America to be noticeable. Other visitors 
arrived in their own sloops, sailing in some instances from 
the upper waters of the Chesapeake, and in other cases on 
the open ocean from Pennsylvania and New York. Some 
even of the Indians gathered their blankets round them 
and strolled into the little capital to lend picturesqueness 
to this powwow of white men. The opening of an infant 
college was a notable break in the rather eventless monot- 
ony of a half-settled coast, remote from the great world. 

The so-called college, thus hopefully launched, drifted 
inevitably into the whirlpools and eddies of petty provin- 
cial politics ; its revenues were a tempting bait to the ring 
of predatory colonial magnates and ambitious sycophants 
that surrounded a royal governor in that day. William 
and Mary College was but a grammar school for years 
after its start, and its development was tediously slow. 
But most of its resources were saved from plunder and 
waste, and at the outbreak of the Revolution it was said 
to be the richest institution of learning in America. 

Edward Eggleston: The Transit of Chilhation, pp, 
239» 249. 



30 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Questions 

What hours did colonial schools keep? On what basis were 
hoHdays allowed? What were the motives that led Virginians to 
desire a college in the seventeenth century? Why did Governor 
Berkeley oppose it? Describe the founding of William and Mary 
College. 

VIII 

THE LIFE AND HOME OF A COLONIAL 
PLANTER 

The plantation w^hich is here described was doubtless more 
elaborate and more thoroughly organized and managed than 
were the majority of the large plantations in colonial Virginia, 
and yet it can fairly be taken as representative. The big plan- 
tation, a little world by itself, owned by one man and managed 
by him or under his general supervision, was the striking fea- 
ture of the old South, as the town which is described in the fol- 
lowing selection was characteristic of New England. George 
Mason, the owner of this plantation, was an important person 
in Virginia in the Revolutionary days. He was the author of 
the Virginia Bill of Rights of 1776, or at least was largely 
responsible for it ; he was a member of the Federal Convention 
of 1787. His plantation was within a few miles of Mount Ver- 
non, the home of Washington. 

Gunston Hall is situated on a height on the right bank 
of the Potomac river v^ithin a short walk of the shores, 
and commanding a full view of it, about five miles above 
the mouth of that branch of it on the same side called the 
Occoquan. When I can first remember it, it was in a 
state of high improvement and carefully kept. The south 
front looked to the river ; from an elevated little portico 
on this front you descended directly into an extensive gar- 
den, touching the house on one side and reduced from the 
natural irregularity of the hill top to a perfect level plat- 
form, the southern extremity of which was bounded by a 
spacious walk running eastwardly and westwardly, from 



THE COLONIES 3^ 

which there was by the natural and sudden declivity of 
the hill a rapid descent to the plain considerably below it. 
On this plain adjoining the margin of the hill, opposite 
k) and in full view from the garden, was a deer park, 
studded with trees, kept well fenced and stocked with na- 
tive deer domesticated. On the north front, by which 
was the principal approach, was an extensive lawn kept " 
closely pastured, through the midst of which led a spacious 
avenue, girded by long double ranges of that hardy and 
stately cherry tree, the common black heart, raised from 
the stone, and so the more fair and uniform in their 
growth, commencing at about two hundred feet from the 
house and extending thence for about twelve hundred feet; 
the carriage way being in the center and the footways on 
either side, between the two rows, forming each double 
range of trees, and under their shade. 

But what was remarkable and most imposing in this 
avenue was that the four rows of trees being to be so 
alligned as to counteract that deception in our vision which, 
in looking down long parallel lines makes them seem to 
approach as they recede ; advantage was taken of the cir- 
cumstance and another very pleasant delusion was effected. 
A common center was established exactly in the middle 
of the outer doorway of the mansion, on that front, from 
which were made to diverge at a certain angle the four 
lines on which these trees were planted, the plantation not 
commencing but at a considerable distance therefrom 
(about two hundred feet as before mentioned) and so 
carefully and accurately had they been planted, and trained 
and dressed in accordance each with the others, as they 
progressed in their growth, that from the point described 
as taken from the common center, and when they had got 
to a great size, only the first four trees were visible. More 
than once have I known my father, under whose special 
care this singular and beautiful display of trees had been 
arranged and preserved, and who set great value on them, 
amuse his friends by inviting some gentleman or lady 



32 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

(who, visiting Gunston for the first time, may have hap- 
pened to arrive after night, or may have come by the way 
of the river and entered by the other front, and so not 
have seen the avenue) to the north front to see the grounds, 
and then by placing them exactly in the middle of the door- 
way, and asking, ' how many trees do you see before you ? ' 
* four ' would necessarily be the answer because the fact 
was that those at the end of the four rows next the house 
completely, and especially when in full leaf, concealed from 
that view, body and top, all the others, though more than 
fifty in each row. Then came the request, ' Be good 
enough to place yourself now close to either side of the 
doorway, and then tell us how many you see.' The an- 
swer would now be with delight and surprise, but as neces- 
sarily, ' A great number, and to a vast extent, but how 
many it is impossible to say ! ' And in truth to the eye 
placed at only about two feet to the right or left of the 
first position, there were presented, as if by magic, four 
long, and apparently close walls of wood made up of the 
bodies of the trees, and above, as many of rich foliage 
constituted by their boughs stretching, as seemed to an im- 
measurable distance. 

To the west of the main building were first the school- 
house, and then at a little distance, masked by a row of 
large English walnut trees, were the stables. To the east 
was a high paled yard, adjoining the house, into which 
opened an outer door from the private front, within or 
connected with which yard were the kitchen, well, poul- 
try houses, and other domestic arrangements ; and beyond 
it on the same side, were the corn house and granary, 
servants' houses (in those days called negro quarters), hay 
yard and cattle pens, all of which were masked by rows of 
large cherry and mulberry trees. And adjoining the en- 
closed grounds on which stood the mansion and all these 
appendages on the eastern side was an extensive pasture 
for stock of all kinds running down to the river, through 
which led the road to the Landing, emphatically so called. 



THE COLONIES 33 

where all persons or things water borne, were landed or 
taken off, and where were kept the boats, pettiangers and 
canoes of which there were always several for business 
transportation, fishing, and hunting, belonging to the es- 
tablishment. Farther north and on the same side was an 
extensive orchard of fine fruit trees of a variety of kinds. 
Beyond this was a small and highly fenced pasture de- 
voted to a single brood horse. The occupant in my early 
days was named Vulcan, of the best stock in the country 
and a direct descendant of the celebrated Old James. The 
west side of the lawn or enclosed grounds was skirted by 
a wood, just far enough within which to be out of sight, 
was a little village called Log-Town, so-called because 
most of the houses were built of hewn pine logs. Here 
lived several families of the slaves serving about the man- 
sion house ; among them were my father's body-servant 
James, a mulatto man and his family, and those of several 
negro carpenters. 

The heights on which the mansion house stood extended 
in an east and west direction across an isthmus and were 
at the northern extremity of the estate to which it be- 
longed. This contained something more than five thou- 
sand acres, and was called Dogue's Neck (I believe after 
the tribe of Indians which had inhabited this and the neigh- 
boring country), water-locked by the Potomac on the south, 
the Occoquan on the west, and Pohick Creek (a bold and 
navigable branch of the Potomac, on the east, and again by 
Holt's Creek, a branch of the Occoquan, that stretches for 
some distance across from that river in an easterly direc- 
tion. The isthmus on the northern boundary is narrow 
and the whole estate was kept completely enclosed by a 
fence on that side of about one mile in length running from 
the head of Holt's to the margin of Pohick Creek. This 
fence was maintained with great care and in good repair 
in my father's time, in order to secure to his own stock 
the exclusive range within it, and made of uncommon 
height to keep in the native deer which had been preserved 
4 



34 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

there in abundance from the first settlement of the country 
and indeed are yet there (1832) in considerable numbers. 
The land south of the heights and comprising more than 
nine tenths of the estate was an uniform level elevated some 
twenty feet above the surface of the river, with the excep- 
tion of one extensive marsh and three or four water 
courses, which were accompanied by some ravines and 
undulations of minor character — and about two-thirds of 
it were yet clothed with the primitive wood ; the whole of 
this level tract was embraced in one view from the man- 
sion house. In different parts of this tract and detached 
from each other, my father worked four plantations with 
his own slaves, each under an overseer; and containing 
four or five hundred acres of open land. The crops were 
principally Indian corn and tobacco; the corn for the sup- 
port of the plantations and the home house, and the to- 
bacco for sale. There was but little small grain made in 
that part of the country in those days. He had also 
another plantation worked in the same manner, on an 
estate he had in Charles County, Maryland, on the Potomac 
about twenty miles lower down, at a place called Stump 
Neck. 

It was very much the practise with gentlemen of landed 
and slave estates in the interior of Virginia, so to organize 
them as to have considerable resources within themselves ; 
to employ and pay but few tradesmen, and to buy little or 
none of the coarse stuffs and materials used by them ; and 
this practise became stronger and more general during the 
long period of the Revolutionary War which in great meas- 
ure cut off the means of supply from elsewhere. Thus 
my father had among his slaves, carpenters, coopers, saw- 
yers, blacksmiths, tanners, curriers, shoemakers, spinners, 
weavers and knitters, and even a distiller. His woods 
furnished timber and plank for the carpenters and coopers, 
and charcoal for the blacksmith ; his cattle, killed for his 
own consumption and for sale, supplied skins for the tan- 
ners, curriers and shoemakers, and his sheep gave wool 



THE COLONIES 35 

and his fields produced cotton and flax for the weavers and 
spinners, and his orchards fruit for the distiller. His car- 
penters and sawyers built and kept in repair all the dwell- 
ing-houses, barns, stables, ploughs, harrows, gates, etc., 
on the plantations and the outhouses at the home house. 
His coopers made the hogsheads the tobacco was prized 
in and the tight casks to hold the cider and other liquors. 
The tanners and curriers with the proper vats, etc., tanned 
and dressed the skins as well for upper as for lower 
leather to the full amount of the consumption of the estate, 
and the shoemakers made them into shoes for the negroes. 
A professed shoemaker was hired for three or four months 
in the year to come and make up the shoes for the white 
part of the family. The blacksmith did all the iron work 
required by the establishment, as making and repairing 
ploughs, harrows, teeth chains, bolts, etc., etc. The spin- 
ners, weavers and knitters made all the coarse cloths and 
stockings used by the negroes, and some of finer texture 
worn by the white family, nearly all worn by the children of 
it. The distiller made every fall a good deal of apple, peach, 
and persimmon brandy. The art of distilling from grain 
was not then among us, and but few public distilleries. All 
these operations were carried on at the home house, and 
their results distributed as occasion required to the differ- 
ent plantations. Moreover all the beeves and hogs for con- 
sumption or sale were driven up and slaughtered there at 
the proper seasons, and whatever was to be preserved was 
salted and packed away for after distribution. 

My father kept no steward or clerk about him. He 
kept his own books and superintended, with the assistance 
of a trusty slave or two, and occasionally of some of his 
sons, all the operations at or about the home house above 
described ; except that during the Revolutionary War, and 
when it was necessary to do a great deal in that way to 
clothe all his slaves, he had in his service a white man, a 
weaver of the finer stufi:'s, to weave himself and superin- 
tend the negro spinning-women. To carry on these opera- 



36 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

tions to the extent required, it will be seen that a consid- 
erable force was necessary, besides the house servants, 
who for such a household, a large family and entertaining 
a great deal of company, must be numerous — and such a 
force was constantly kept there, independently of any of 
the plantations, and besides occasional drafts from them 
of labor for particular occasions. As I had during my 
youth constant intercourse with all these people, I remem- 
ber them all and their several employments as if it was 
yesterday. 

Kate M. Rowland: The Life of George Mason, pp. 
98-102. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, 
1892. 

Questions 

Describe the arrangement of the buildings at Gunston Hall. 
How much of the land of the plantation was under cultivation? 
How did George Mason make his estate self-sufficing? What trades 
were carried on by his slaves? How far did they supply the needs 
of his family? How did the river serve the plantation as a means 
of transportation? 

IX 

THE NEW ENGLAND TOWN 

The following selection from the pen of President Dwight 
of Yale College, written near the beginning of the nineteenth 
century, gives a New Englander's idea of the worth of the 
town and the town meeting. Probably no other institution 
among the institutions of the New World has received so much 
praise and so little condemnation as this. The men of the 
town had a voice and a vote in the town meeting which elected 
officers and decided on numerous matters of local interest. The 
value of this participation in government is undoubtedly large; 
the results of a town meeting discussion might not always be 
wise and judicious, but the value of an institution of free gov- 
ernment is to be judged quite as much by its influence on those 
that take part in the government as by the symmetry of its leg- 
islation or by the uniform equity with which laws are ad- 
ministered. 



THE COLONIES 37 

The towns, you will perceive, have many peculiar inter- 
ests of great importance ; are required to perform many 
important duties; are invested with many valuable powers, 
rights, and privileges; and are protected from injustice, 
and imposition, in the enjoyment of their rights and the 
performance of their duties. . . . 

The confusion, incident to popular meetings, and so 
often disgraceful to those of Athens and Rome, is effec- 
tually prevented. 

To this state of things many causes contribute. The 
towns are all of a moderate size and population. The 
numbers, assembled at any town meeting, must, there- 
fore, be always moderate. Of course, the noisy, tumul- 
tuous proceedings, and rash measures, so generally found 
in great assemblies of men, are here unknown. The regu- 
lations, also, are marked with the strictest propriety. No 
person speaks without leave. The person, who rises first, 
speaks first ; and no person interrupts him. The votes, 
and all the other proceedings, are conducted with a very 
honourable decorum. The most powerful cause, perhaps, 
of all this propriety is to be found in the education, and 
habits, of the people; under the influence of which every 
person, after the meeting is adjourned, usually retires to 
his house ; and riot, noise, and indecency, so common on 
similar occasions in other countries, are here unknown. . . . 

Their measures affect only their own concerns. They 
will not injure themselves: they cannot injure others. No 
clashing can exist between the towns themselves, nor be- 
tween any town and the public; for their proceedings are 
valid only by law, and, whenever they contravene it, are 
nothing. 

By these local Legislatures a multitude of important 
concerns are managed, too numerous and unwieldy to be 
adjusted by the Legislature of the State; and far better 
known by those, who actually superintend them, than by 



38 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

any other persons. They have a deep interest in these 
concerns ; and therefore will not neglect them ; understand 
them perfectly, and will therefore regulate them wisely ; 
are always present, and therefore can meet and act on 
every emergency. 

In these little schools men commence their apprentice- 
ship to public life, and learn to do public business. Here 
the young speaker makes his first essays, and here his 
talents are displayed, marked, and acknowledged. The 
aged, and discreet here see with pleasure the promise of 
usefulness in the young, and fail not to reward with honour- 
able testimonials every valuable effort of the rising gener- 
ation. The questions agitated, though affecting only local 
concerns and a moderate number of people, are still inter- 
esting, and often deeply. At times they furnish full scope 
for the genius, understanding, and eloquence of any man ; 
are ably discussed, and command profound attention. The 
sober, busy citizens of Connecticut are, however, very little 
inclined to commend, or even listen to, the eloquence which 
is intended merely for show. He who would be heard 
with approbation or mentioned with praise must speak 
only because there is occasion to speak ; must speak with 
modesty, with brevity, to forward or improve the meas- 
ures proposed or those which he substitutes, and not to 
show that he can speak, however ingeniously. 

The Selectmen, the proper town Executive, are in- 
trusted with powers which at first sight may seem enor- 
mous. They are undoubtedly great, and the trust (the 
sphere of action being considered) is high; of course, it 
ought always to be, and usually is, committed to respect- 
able citizens. But experience has abundantly proved, that 
these powers are intrusted with perfect safety, and incal- 
culable advantage to the Public. An instance, in which 
they have been abused, has hardly been known, since the 
settlement of the State. Numerous and troublesome as 
their services are, these officers have in very few towns 
ever received any compensation beside the consciousness 



THE COLONIES 39 

of having been useful, and the esteem of their fellow citi- 
zens. 

I have remarked above, that men learn to do public 
business by being conversant with the affairs of Towns. 
You will remember, that every town annually elects a con- 
siderable number of Officers. Even the humblest of these 
offices furnishes opportunities for information and exer- 
cise for sagacity; and, collectively, they are suited to every 
age and capacity of man. A irtues are here tried and tal- 
ents occupied in a manner safe alike to the employer and 
the agent. On the one hand the capacity for business is 
enlarged ; and on the other the best proof is given which 
can be given of the proper preparatory qualifications for 
business of a superior and more extensive nature. In the 
closet no man ever becomes acquainted with either the 
concerns or the character of men, or with the manner in 
which business ought to be conducted. The general prin- 
ciples of political science a scholar may understand 
equally with those of other sciences. But of business, 
which is necessarily done in detail if done to any purpose, 
the mere scholar literally knows nothing. He may be able 
to write a good political book, but he cannot do political 
business, because he never has done it. A plain man, edu- 
cated in the business of a town, will easily show him that 
in knowledge of this kind he is an infant ; and that what- 
ever may be his genius or his acquisitions. 

At the same time, the business done here is so various, 
so similar in many respects to that of a Legislature, and 
so connected with the public police, it returns so often, 
occupies so many hands, and involves so many public 
offices, that the inhabitants become not a little versed in 
public affairs. Hence they are peculiarly qualified to 
judge of their nature. A Republican Government is 
founded on general opinion. It is, therefore, of the high- 
est importance that this opinion should be correct. No 
method hitherto adopted by mankind has been equally suc- 
cessful with this in forming that opinion, and in fitting men 



40 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

to judge well concerning governmental measures. A large 
proportion of the citizens of this State have actually sus- 
tained one public office, and multitudes, several, and have 
of course been personally concerned in transacting public 
business. Hence they have already known by experience 
the difficulties incident to public concerns, and are, in a 
degree superior to what is usually found elsewhere, pre- 
pared to form judicious opinions concerning the measures 
of the Legislature. I have heard laws discussed by plain 
men with more good sense than any mere scholar could 
have displayed on the same subjects. By these men they 
were canvassed as to their operation on the actual interests 
of themselves, and others. By a scholar they would have 
been examined as to their accordance with preconceived 
general principles. The former were certain means of 
determining on the merits of a law; the latter only prob- 
able, and very imperfect. 

From these facts it arises in no small measure, that the 
citizens of Connecticut have ever exhibited a peculiar skill 
and discretion in both judging and acting, concerning pub- 
lic affairs. Every man who arrives at the higher offices 
of magistracy serves, almost of course, an apprenticeship 
in the concerns of the town. Here his character is tried. 
If he acquires the general approbation, he is elected to the 
Legislature. There he undergoes a new trial, and, if suf- 
ficiently approved, is in the end chosen by the Freemen at 
large into the Council. In this body, if his conduct is not 
materially altered, he is regularly placed by the same suf- 
frage until he declines an election, becomes disqualified by 
age, or dies. 

Timothy Dwight, S. T. D., LL.D., Late President of 
Yale College: Travels in Nezv-England and New-York, 
Vol. I, pp. 248-252, New Haven, 1821. The part quoted 
was, in all probability, written some time between 1802 
and 1814. See "Preface," pp. 10, 11; and pp. 237, 240, 



THE COLONIES 41 



Questions 

Name the advantages of the system of local government by the 
town meeting here described. How did the town meeting train the 
citizens to judge intelligently of the politics and public business of 
the State? What is the advantage in every man's having held some 
public office however small? How does it make him able to judge 
better the administration and laws of his State or National gov- 
ernment? Why could not a great city be governed like one of 
these towns? What is the advantage of having the local concerns 
of a township or village settled by its inhabitants? How far 
in your own home do the inhabitants of township or county to-day 
have the right of settling local business? 



PART II 

THE REVOLUTION AND THE 
CONSTITUTION 



CAUSES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

The writer of the book from which this extract is taken was 
an EngHshman of learning, one of the greatest historical writers 
among his countrymen of the nineteenth century. His account 
of the causes of the hostility between England and her Colonies 
has generally (been considered scrupulously just and fair. 
Since these words were written a great deal of work has been 
done by scholars on the causes of the Revolution, especially on 
those phases of the subject which show the conditions in the 
Colonies and the elements of social and industrial unrest; but 
the author's words as here given remain substantially just. 
Lecky was the author of the History of England in the 
Eighteenth Century; chapters from that work have been gath- 
ered into the volume called Lecky's American Revolution, from 
which the following extract is taken. 

When Grenville succeeded to power on the fall of Bute,^ 
he took up the design,^ and his thorough knowledge of all 
the details of office, his impatience of any kind of neglect, 
abuse, and illegality, as well as his complete want of that 
political tact which teaches statesmen how far they may 
safely press their views, foreshadowed a great change in 
colonial affairs. He resolved to enforce strictly the trade 

1 The Earl of Bute was Prime Minister from May, 1762, to April, 
1763. 

2 Of making the Colonies pay taxes levied by Act of Parliament, 
with which troops used for colonial defense were to be paid. 

42 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 43 

laws, to establish permanently in America a portion of the 
British army, and to raise by parliamentary taxation of 
America at least a part of the money which was necessary 
for its support. 

These three measures produced the American Revolu- 
tion, and they are well worthy of a careful and dispas- 
sionate examination. The enormous extent of American 
smuggling had been brought into clear relief during the 
war, when it had assumed a very considerable military 
importance, and as early as 1762 there were loud com- 
plaints in Parliament of the administration of the Custom- 
house patronage. Grenville found on examination that 
the whole revenue derived by England from the custom- 
houses in America amounted to between £1,000 and £2,000 
a year; that for the purpose of collecting this revenue the 
English Exchequer paid annually between £7,000 and 
£8,000, and that the chief Custom-house officers appointed 
by the Crown had treated their offices as sinecures, and by 
leave of the Treasury resided habitually in England. 
Great portions of the trade laws had been systematically 
violated. Thus, for example, the Colonists were allowed 
by law to import no tea except from the mother country, 
and it was computed that of a million and a half pounds 
of tea which they annually consumed, not more than a 
tenth part came from England. This neglect Grenville 
resolved to terminate. The Commissioners of Customs 
were ordered at once to their posts. Several new rev- 
enue officers were appointed with more rigid rules for the 
discharge of their duties. The Board of Trade issued a 
circular to the colonists representing that the revenue had 
not kept pace with the increasing commerce, and did not 
yield more than one quarter of the cost of collection, and 
requiring that illicit commerce should be suppressed, and 
that proper support should be given to the Custom-house 
officials. English ships of war were at the same time sta- 
tioned off the American coast for the purpose of intercept- 
ing smugglers. 



44 -READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

In 1764, new measures of great severity were taken. 
The trade with the French West India islands and with 
the Spanish settlements, for molasses and sugar, had been 
one of the most lucrative branches of New England com- 
merce. New England found in the French islands a mar- 
ket for her timber, and she obtained in return an abundant 
supply of the molasses required for her distilleries. The 
French West India islands were nearer than those of 
England. They were in extreme need of the timber of 
which New England furnished an inexhaustible supply, 
and they were in no less need of a market for their mo- 
lasses, which had been excluded from France as inter- 
fering with French brandies, and of which enormous quan- 
tities were bought by the New England Colonies. In 
1763, 14,500 hogsheads of molasses were imported into 
New England from the French and Spanish settlements; 
it was largely paid for by timber which would otherwise 
have rotted uselessly on the ground, and the possibility of 
selling this timber at a profit gave a great impulse to the 
necessary work of clearing land in New England. No 
trade could have been more clearly beneficial to both par- 
ties, and the New Englanders maintained that it was the 
foundation of their whole system of commerce. The dis- 
tilleries of Boston, and of other parts of New England, had 
acquired a great magnitude. Rum w^as sent in large quan- 
tities to the Newfoundland fisheries and to the Indians, 
and it is a circumstance of peculiar and melancholy inter- 
est that it w^as the main article which the Americans sent 
to Africa in exchange for negro slaves. In the trade with 
the Spanish settlements the colonists obtained the greater 
part of the gold and silver with which they purchased 
English commodities, and this fact was the more impor- 
tant because an English Act of Parliament had recently 
restrained the colonists from issuing paper money. 

In the interest of the English sugar colonies, which de- 
sired to obtain a monopoly for their molasses and their 
sugar, and which at the same time were quite incapable of 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 45 

furnishing a sufficient market for the superfluous articles 
of American commerce, a law had been passed in 1733 
which imposed upon molasses a prohibitory duty of six- 
pence a gallon and on sugar a duty of five shillings per 
hundred weight, if they were imported into any of the 
British plantations from any foreign colonies. No por- 
tion of the commercial code was so deeply resented in 
America, and its effects would have been ruinous, had not 
the law been systematically eluded with the connivance 
of the revenue officers, and had not smuggling almost as- 
sumed the dimensions and the character of a branch of 
regular commerce. After several renewals the Act ex- 
pired in 1763, and the colonies urgently petitioned that 
it should not be renewed. 

Bernard, the Governor, and Hutchinson, the Lieuten- 
ant-Governor of Massachusetts, strongly condemned the 
policy of the Act, and dwelt upon the impossibility of en- 
forcing it. Grenville, however, refused to relinquish what 
might be made a source of revenue, and the old law was 
renewed with several important modifications. The duty 
on molasses was reduced by one-half, but new duties were 
imposed on coffee, pimento,^ French and East India goods, 
white sugar and indigo from foreign colonies, Spanish and 
Portuguese wine, and wine from Madeira and the Azores, 
and the most stringent measures were taken to enforce the 
law. Bonds were exacted from every merchant who ex- 
ported lumber or iron; the jurisdiction of the Courts of 
Admiralty, which tried smuggling cases without a jury, was 
strengthened and enlarged, and all the officers of ships of 
war stationed on the coasts of America were made to take 
the Custom-house oaths and act as revenue officers. In 
addition, therefore, to the old race of experienced but 
conniving revenue officers, the repression of smuggling be- 
came the business of a multitude of rough and zealous 
sailors, who entered into the work with real keenness, with 

3 Allspice. 



46 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

no respect of persons, and sometimes with not a little un- 
necessary or excessive violence. The measure was one of 
the most serious blows that could be administered to the 
somewhat waning prosperity of Boston, and it was the 
more obnoxious on account of its preamble, which an- 
nounced as a reason for imposing additional duties that 
" it is just and necessary that a revenue be raised in your 
Majesty's dominions in America for defraying the ex- 
penses of defending, protecting, and securing the same." 
In order to diminish the severity of these restrictions, 
bounties were in the same year given to the cultivation of 
hemp and flax in the colonies. South Carolina and 
Georgia were allowed to export the rice which was their 
chief product to the French West India islands; and the 
whale fishery, which was one of the most profitable indus- 
tries of New England, was relieved of a duty which had 
hitherto alone prevented it from completely superseding or 
eclipsing the whale fishery of England. 

Judging by the mere letter of the law, the commercial 
policy of Grenville can hardly be said to have aggravated 
the severity of the commercial code, for the new restric- 
tions that were imposed were balanced by the new in- 
dulgences that were conferred. In truth, however, the 
severe enforcement of rules which had been allowed to 
become nearly obsolete was a most serious injury to the 
prosperity of New England. A trade which was in the 
highest degree natural and beneficial, and which had long 
been pursued with scarcely any hindrance, was impeded, 
and the avowed object of raising by imperial authority a 
revenue to defray the expense of defending the colonies, 
created a constitutional question of the gravest kind. . . . 

In truth, the measure,* although it was by no means as 
unjust or as unreasonable as has been alleged, and al- 
though it might perhaps in some periods of colonial history 
have passed almost unpercelved, did unquestionably in- 

4 The Stamp Act. 






THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 47 

fringe upon a principle which the EngHsh race both at 
home and abroad have always regarded with a peculiar 
jealousy. The doctrine that taxation and representation 
are in free nations inseparably connected, that constitu- 
tional government is closely connected with the rights of 
property, and that no people can be legitimately taxed ex- 
cept by themselves or their representatives, lay at the very 
root of the English conception of political liberty. The 
same principle that had led the English people to provide 
so carefully in the Great Charter, in a well-known statute 
of Edward I, and in the Bill of Rights, that no taxation 
should be drawn from them except by the English Parlia- 
ment, the same principle which had gradually invested the 
representative branch ^ of the Legislature with the special 
and peculiar function of granting supplies, led the col- 
onists to maintain that their liberty would be destroyed if 
they were taxed by a Legislature in which they had no 
representatives, and which sat 3,000 miles from their shore. 
It was a principle which had been respected by Henry 
VIII and Elizabeth in the most arbitrary moments of their 
reigns, and its violation by Charles I was one of the chief 
causes of the Rebellion. The principle which led Hamp- 
den to refuse to pay 20s. of ship money ^ was substantially 
the same as that which inspired the resistance of the Stamp 
Act. It might be impossible to show by the letter of the 
law that there was any generical '' distinction between tax- 
ing and other legislative acts, but in the constitutional tradi- 
tions of the English people a broad line did undoubtedly 
exist. As Burke ^ truly said, " The great contests for 

5 The House of Commons in the British Parliament. 

^ A tax used by Charles the First in 1634 and successive years 
to raise money without assent of Parliament. The tax in theory 
was an emergency measure to enable the King to provide a fleet 
for the defense of the Kingdom. 

"^ I. e., a distinction in essential qualities. 

8 Edmund Burke, the Whig statesman of the second half of the 
eighteenth century. 



48 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

freedom in this country were from the earliest times 
chiefly on the question of taxing." The EngUsh people 
have always held that as long as their representatives retain 
the power of the purse they will be able at least to check 
every extravagance of tyranny, but that whenever this is 
given up the whole fabric of their liberty is undermined. 
The English Parliament had always abstained from im- 
posing taxes on Wales until Welsh members sat among 
them. When the right of self-taxation was withdrawn 
from Convocation,^ the clergy at once assumed and exer- 
cised the privilege of voting for Members of Parliament 
in virtue of their ecclesiastical freeholds. The English 
Parliament repeatedly asserted its authority over the 
Parliament of Ireland, and it often exerted it in a manner 
which was grossly tyrannical ; but it never imposed any 
direct tax upon the Irish people. The weighty language 
of Henry Cromwell,^^ who governed Ireland in one of the 
darkest periods of her history, was remembered : " I am 
glad," he wrote, " to hear that as well non-legal as contra- 
legal ways of raising money are not hearkened to. . . . 
Errors in raising money are the compendious ways to cause 
a general discontent ; for whereas other things are but the 
concernments of some, this is of all. Wherefore, I hope 
God will in His mercy not lead us into temptation." 

It is quite true that this theory, like that of the social 
contract ^^ which has also borne a great part in the history 
of political liberty, will not bear a severe and philosophical 
examination. The opponents of the American claims were 
able to reply, with undoubted truth, that at least nine- 
tenths of the English people had no votes ; that the great 

^ The assembly of the clergy of the Church of England. 

10 Son of Oliver Cromwell, governor of Ireland under various 
titles, 1655-1659. 

1^ The theory of the social contract is that when men first began 
living in communities together, each man by a contract with the 
rest of the men forming the society in question gave up certain of 
the rights he had before possessed, and reserved others which no 
government had the right to exercise over him. 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 49 

manufacturing towns, which contributed so largely to the 
public burdens, were for the most part wholly unrepre- 
sented ; that the minority in Parliament voted only in order 
to be systematically overruled ; and that, in a country where 
the constituencies were as unequal as in England, that 
minority often represented the large majority of the voters. 
It was easy to show that the financial system of the coun- 
try consisted chiefly of a number of particular taxes im- 
posed on particular classes and industries, and that in the 
great majority of cases these taxes were levied not only 
without the consent but in spite of the strenuous opposi- 
tion of the representatives of those who paid them. The 
doctrine that " whatever a man has honestly acquired is 
absolutely his own, and cannot without robbery be taken 
from him, except by his own consent," if it were applied 
rigidly to taxation, would reduce every society to anarchy ; 
for there is no tax which on such principles a large pro- 
portion of the taxpayers would not be authorized in resist- 
ing. It was a first principle of the Constitution that a 
Member of Parliament was the representative not merely 
of his own constituency, but also of the whole Empire. 
Men connected with, or at least specially interested in, 
the colonies, always found their way into Parliament ; 
and the very fact that the colonial arguments were main- 
tained with transcendent power within its walls was suffi- 
cient to show that the colonies were virtually represented. 
Such arguments gave an easy dialectic victory to the sup- 
porters of the Stamp Act ; but in the eyes of a true states- 
man they are very insufficient. Severe accuracy of defi- 
nition, refinement and precision of reasoning, are for the 
most part wholly out of place in practical politics. It 
might be true that there was a line where internal and 
external taxation, taxation for purposes of commerce and 
taxation for purposes of revenue, faded imperceptibly into 
one another ; but still there was a broad, rough distinction 
between the two provinces which was sufficiently palpable 
to form the basis of a colonial policy. The theory con- 
5 



50 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

necting representation with taxation was susceptible of a 
similar justification. A Parliament elected by a consider- 
able part of the English people, drawn from the English 
people, sitting in the midst of them, and exposed to their 
social and intellectual influence, was assumed to represent 
the whole nation, and the decision of its majority was 
assumed to be the decision of the whole. If it be asked 
how these assumptions could be defended, it can only be 
answered that they had rendered possible a form of gov- 
ernment which had arrested the incursions of the royal 
prerogative,^^ had given England a longer period and a 
longer measure of self-government than was enjoyed by 
any other great European nation, and had created a public 
spirit sufficiently powerful to defend the liberties that had 
been won. Such arguments, however worthless they might 
appear to a lawyer or a theorist, ought to be very sufficient 
to a statesman. Manchester and Sheffield had no more 
direct representation in Parliament than Boston or Phila- 
delphia ; but the relations of unrepresented Englishmen and 
of colonists to the English Parliament were very different. 
Parliament could never long neglect the fierce beatings of 
the waves of popular discontent around its walls. It might 
long continue perfectly indifferent to the wishes of a popu- 
lation 3,000 miles from the English shore. When Parlia- 
ment taxed the English people, the taxing body itself felt 
the weight of the burden it imposed ; but Parliament felt 
no part of the weight of colonial taxation, and had there- 
fore a direct interest in increasing it. The English people 
might justly complain that they were taxed by a body in 
which they were very imperfectly represented ; but this was 
a widely different thing from being taxed by the Legislature 
of another country. To adopt the powerful language of 
an Irish writer, no free people will ever admit " that per- 
sons distant from them 1,000 leagues are to tax them to 

12 A right of government, or a power to perform certain acts of 
government claimed by the king as inherent in the kingly office ; for 
the exercise of the prerogative he need give no accomit to his people. 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 51 

what amount they please, without their consent, without 
knowing them or their concerns, without any sympathy of 
affection or interest, without even sharing themselves in 
the taxes they impose — on the contrary, diminishing their 
own burdens exactly in the degree they increase theirs." 

W. E. H. Lecky: The American Revolution, 1762-1783. 
Being the Chapters and Passages Relating to America from 
the Author's History of England in the Eighteenth Century. 
Arranged and Edited by J. A. Woodburn, pp. 51-56, 75- 
79. D. Appleton and Co., New York, il 



Questions 

Name the three divisions of Grenville's policy toward the Col- 
onies. How did he plan to make the execution of the Navigation 
Acts more effectual? (The policy of enforcing the acts was 
by no means entirely original with Grenville.) Why were the 
means that he employed sure to irritate the Colonists? Describe 
the trade of New England with the West Indies. How did rum 
and slaves become indirectly a part of this commerce? Why was 
it essential to New England's welfare? What were the provisions 
of the Act of 1733? How were they modified by the Act of 1764? 
How had the principle of no taxation without representation been 
illustrated in English history? Did it recognize a difference be- 
tween an ordinary law and one levying a tax? How far were the 
English people actually represented in Parliament in the eighteenth 
century? Could all men vote for members of Parliament? In 
what sense could a part of the English people be said to be taxed 
without representation in Parliament? In what ways could people 
in England influence the House of Commons that sat in their midst 
even when they had no voice in choosing members? Would it be 
possible for the Colonists so to influence the House of Commons? 
In case the interests of the Colonies and the interests of England 
were opposed to each other, would the Colonists be able to have 
their side presented in Parliament as effectually as the English side 
would be? 

XI 

TAXATION AND REPRESENTATION 

The following extracts are taken from two speeches delivered 
in Parliament, January 14, 1766, by William Pitt, the friend 



52 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

of America, the great English minister who did so much to 
sustain England and lead her on to victory in the Seven Years' 
War. They constitute an arraignment of the policy of the 
Grenville ministry in passing the Stamp Act. While Pitt in- 
sists that Parliament had the full right to legislate for the Col- 
onies, he draws a sharp line between legislation and taxation 
and insists that there is a practical and theoretical difference. 
The Englishmen were wont to insist that there was no distinc- 
tion between taxation and general legislation; if Parliament 
had the right to do one, it had the right to do the other. With 
pleadings for a right of taxation based on legal reasonings and 
with finespun theories Pitt had no patience, though even by 
the precedents of English liberty taxation and representation 
went together; he might himself use the books of law but he 
prefers to demand the recognition of principles of common jus- 
tice. 

We should notice that England did not actually have a 
broad and generous basis in her own representative system, 
and this Pitt in part acknowledged in speaking of the rotten 
part of the Constitution ; but the Americans, and Pitt with them, 
were appealing to an idea of representation that was in ad- 
vance of actual English practice. These extracts are given here, 
not because we must necessarily hold that Parliament in strict 
law had no legal right to tax America, for much can be said in 
defense of that legal right or power, but because it is an elo- 
quent defense of the American position ; the question at bottom 
was not whether Parliament had the right from the legal 
point of view, but whether that body would recognize broad 
principles of justice even though those principles had not as 
yet full place in the English constitution, or at least in the work- 
ing practice of England in those days. 

It is a long time, Mr. Speaker, since I have attended in 
Parliament. When the resolution was taken in the House 
to tax America, I was ill in bed. If I could have endured 
to have been carried in my bed, so great was the agitation of 
my mind for the consequences, I would have solicited some 
kind hand to have laid me down on this floor, to have borne 
my testimony against it. It is now an act that has passed; 
I would speak with decency of every act of this House, 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 53 

but I must beg the indulgence of the House to speak of it 
with freedom. 

I hope a day may be soon appointed to consider the state 
of the nation with respect to America. I hope gentlemen 
will come to this debate with all the temper and impar- 
tiality that His Majesty recommends, and the importance 
of the subject requires.^ A subject of greater importance 
than ever engaged the attention of this House, that subject 
only excepted when near a century ago it was the question 
whether you yourselves were to be bound, or free.^ In the 
meantime, as I cannot depend upon health for any future 
day, such is the nature of my infirmities, I will beg to say 
a few words at present, leaving the justice, the equity, the 
policy, the expediency of the act, to another time. I will 
only speak to one point, a point which seems not to have 
been generally understood, I mean to the right. . . . 

... It is my opinion, that this kingdom has no right to 
lay a tax upon the Colonies. At the same time, I assert 
the authority of this kingdom over the Colonies to be 
sovereign and supreme, in every circumstance of govern- 
ment and legislation whatsoever. They are the subjects of 
this kingdom, equally entitled with yourselves to all the 
natural rights of mankind and the peculiar privileges of 
Englishmen. Equally bound by its laws, and equally par- 
ticipating of the constitution of this free country. The 
Americans are the sons, ... of England. Taxation is no 
part of the governing or legislative power. The taxes are 
a voluntary gift and grant of the Commons alone. In 
legislation the three estates of the realm are alike con- 
cerned, but the concurrence of the peers and the Crown 
to a tax, is only necessary to close with the form of a 
law. The gift and grant is of the Commons alone. In 
ancient days, the Crown, the barons, and the clergy pos- 

1 The occasion of debate was the King's speech to Parliament. 

2 The allusion is to the Revolution of i688, which ended forever a 
power the kings had claimed of overriding the laws when they saw 
fit. 



54 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

sessed the lands. In those days, the barons and the clergy 
gave and granted to the Crown. They gave and granted 
what was their own. At present, since the discovery of 
America, and other circumstances permitting, the Commons 
are become the proprietors of the land. The Crown has 
divested itself of its great estates. The Church (God bless 
it) has but a pittance. The property of the Lords, com- 
pared with that of the Commons, is as a drop of water in 
the ocean : and this House represents those Commons, the 
proprietors of the lands ; and those proprietors virtually 
represent the rest of the inhabitants. When, therefore, in 
this House we give and grant, we give and grant what is 
our own. But in an American tax, what do we do? We, 
Your Majesty's Commons of Great Britain, give and grant 
to Your Majesty, what? Our own property? No. We 
give and grant to Your Majesty, the property of Your 
Majesty's Commons of America. It is an absurdity in 
terms. 

The distinction between legislation and taxation is es- 
sentially necessary to liberty. The Crown, the Peers, are 
equally legislative powers with the Commons. If taxation 
be a part of simple legislation, the Crown, the Peers, have 
rights in taxation as well as yourselves : rights which they 
will claim, which they will exercise, whenever the principle 
can be supported by power. 

There is an idea in some that the Colonies are virtually 
represented in this House. I would fain know by whom an 
American is represented here? Is he represented by any 
knight of the shire ^ in any county in this kingdom ? 
Would to God that respectable representation was aug- 
mented to a greater number! Or will you tell him, that 
he is represented by any representative of a borough — a 
borough which, perhaps, its own representative never saw. 
This is what is called " the rotten part of the constitution." 

3 Members elected by the land owners ; two of them sat for each 
shire or county. 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 55 

It cannot continue the century ; if it does not drop, it must 
be amputated. The idea of a virtual representation of 
America in this House is the most contemptible idea that 
ever entered into the head of a man ; it does not deserve a 
serious refutation. 

The Commons of America, represented in their several 
assemblies, have ever been in possession of the exercise of 
this, their constitutional right, of giving and granting their 
own money. They would have been slaves if they had not 
enjoyed it. At the same time, this kingdom, as the supreme 
governing and legislative power, has always bound the Col- 
onies by her laws, by her regulations, and restrictions in 
trade, in navigation, in manufactures, in everything, except 
that of taking their money out of their pockets without their 
consent. . . . 

Gentlemen, Sir (to the Speaker), I have been charged 
with giving birth to sedition in America. They have spoken 
their sentiments with freedom, against this unhappy act, 
and that freedom has become their crime. Sorry I am to 
hear this liberty of speech in this House imputed as a crime. 
. . . The gentleman * tells us America is obstinate ; Amer- 
ica is almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America has 
resisted. Three millions of people so dead to all the feel- 
ings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would 
have been fit instruments to make slaves of all the rest. I 
came not here armed at all points, with law cases and -acts 
of Parliament, with the statute-book doubled in dog's- 
ears, to defend the cause of liberty ; if I had, I myself would 
have cited the two cases of Qiester and Durham.^ I would 

* George Grenville who had answered Pitt's last speech. 

5 A borough, or as we might inexactly say a village or town, had 
a right to choose members to Parliament, generally two. Many 
of the boroughs were ludicrously small ; in some instances the houses 
had actually disappeared and the votes were cast by persons 
brought in to do the bidding of some landed aristocrat who held 
the title to the lands on which once, in years gone by, there were 
hoyses and people. 



56 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

have cited them to have shown that, even under any ar- 
bitrary reigns, ParHaments were ashamed of taxing a people 
without their consent, and allowed them representatives. 
Why did the gentleman ^ confine himself to Chester and 
Durham ? He might have taken a higher example in Wales ; 
Wales, that never was taxed by Parliament till it was incor- 
porated. I would not debate a particular point of law with 
the gentleman ; I know his abilities. I have been obliged to 
his diligent researches. But for the defense of liberty up- 
on a general principle, upon a constitutional principle, it 
is a ground on which I stand firm; on which I dare meet 
any man. 

The Parliamentary History of England, Vol. XVI, pp. 
98 if. London, 181 3. 

Questions 

How important did Pitt consider the principle involved in the 
Stamp Act? How could Pitt argue that while England could legis- 
late for the Colonies she could not tax them? What line did Pitt 
draw between taxation and legislation? What historical origin 
did he name for the power of taxation by Parliament? Did he 
think America in any sense was represented in Parliament? What 
do you think was meant by virtual representation? (One might 
argue with some justice that people are virtually represented if 
someone is chosen from among them to speak and vote in the legis- 
lative body, when if in choosing that person only a small or even 
insignificant portion had the actual right to vote for such a repre- 
sentative. By this phrase, virtual representation, the Englishmen 
tried to justify their own system, in which a large proportion of 
the people had no actual representation in the sense that they had 
the suffrage.) What defects did he believe rested in the system of 
representation? 

^Grenville again is referred to. He had argued that Parliament 
had taxed the little semi-independent border states of Chester and 
Durham (palatinates) before they were entirely amalgamated with 
England and before they had representatives in Parliament. 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 57 



XII 

THE LOYALISTS IN THE AMERICAN 
REVOLUTION 

In one sense the American Revolution can be considered a 
contest in the Colonies between two parties, the Loyalists or 
Tories, and the supporters of the Revolution. The fact that 
owing to superior political skill the latter party in 1775 seized 
control of the governments of the thirteen Colonies should not 
blind us to the fact that the Colonists were very far indeed 
from being unanimous in the support of the Revolution. In 
every Colony there were very many people who resisted the 
Revolution in their Colonies politically as long as they could, 
and supported the British army wherever they were able. The 
following is an estimate of the importance, numbers, and com- 
position of the Loyalist party. 

As preliminary to some examination of the argumenta- 
tive value of the position taken by the Loyalist party, let 
us inquire for a moment, v^hat recognition may be due to 
them simply as persons. Who and v^hat were the Tories 
of the American Revolution? As to their actual number, 
there is some difficulty in framing even a rough estimate. 
No attempt at a census of political opinions was ever made 
during that period ; and no popular vote was ever taken of 
a nature to indicate, even approximately, the numerical 
strength of the two opposing schools of political thought. 
Of course, in every community there were Tories wdio 
were Tories in secret. These could not be counted, for the 
good reason that they could not be known. Then, again, 
the number of openly avowed Tories varied somewhat 
with variations in the prosperity of the Revolution. Still 
further, their number varied wnth variations of locality. 
Throughout the entire struggle, by far the largest num- 
ber of Tories w^as to be found in the Colony of New York, 
particularly in the neighborhood of its chief city. Of the 
other middle Colonies, while there were many Tories in 



58 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

New Jersey, in Delaware, and in Maryland, probably the 
largest number lived in Pennsylvania — a number so great 
that a prominent officer in the Revolutionary army de- 
scribed it as the " enemies' country." Indeed, respecting 
the actual preponderance of the Tory party in these two 
central Colonies, an eminent champion of the Revolution 
bore this startling testimony : '' New York and Pennsyl- 
vania were so nearly divided — if their propensity was not 
against us — that if New England on one side and Virginia 
on the other had not kept them in awe, they would have 
joined the British." Of the New England Colonies, Con- 
necticut had the greatest number of Tories ; and next, in 
proportion to population, was the district which was after- 
wards known as the State of Vermont. Proceeding to the 
Colonies south of the Potomac, we find that in Virginia, 
especially after hostilities began, the Tories were decidedly 
less in number than the Whigs. In North Carolina, the 
two parties were about evenly divided. In South Carolina 
the Tories were the more numerous party ; while in Georgia 
their majority was so great that, in 1781, they were pre- 
paring to detach that Colony from the general movement 
of the rebellion, and probably would have done so, had it 
not been for the embarrassing accident which happened to 
Cornwallis at Yorktown in the latter part of that year. . . . 

After the question of number, very properly comes that 
of quality. What kind of people were these Tories, as 
regards intelligence, character, and standing in their sev- 
eral communities? 

And here, brushing aside, as unworthy of historical in- 
vestigators, the partisan and vindictive epithets of the 
controversy — many of which, however, still survive even 
in the historical writings of our own time — we shall find 
that the Loyalists were, as might be expected, of all grades 
of personal worth and worthlessness ; and that, while 
there was among them, no doubt, the usual proportion of 
human celfishness, malice, and rascality, as a class they 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 59 

were not bad people, much less were they execrable people, 
as their opponents at the time commonly declared them 
to be. 

In the first place, there was, prior to 1776, the official 
class, that is, the men holding various positions in the civil 
and military and naval services of the government, their 
immediate families and their social connections. All such 
persons may be described as inclining to the Loyalist view 
in consequence of official bias. 

Next were certain colonial politicians who, it may be 
admitted, took a rather selfish and an unprincipled view 
of the whole dispute, and who, counting on the probable, 
if not inevitable, success of the British arms in such a 
conflict, adopted the Loyalist side, not for conscience' sake 
but for profit's sake, and in the expectation of being re- 
warded for their fidelity by offices and titles, and espe- 
cially by the confiscated estates of the rebels, after the 
rebels themselves should have been defeated, and their 
leaders hanged or sent into exile. 

As composing still another class of Tories, may be men- 
tioned probably a vast majority of those who stood for the 
commercial interests, for the capital and the tangible 
property of the country, and who, with the instincts natural 
to persons who have something considerable to lose, dis- 
approved of all measures for pushing the dispute to the 
point of disorder, riot, and civil war. 

Still another class of Loyalists was made up of people 
of professional training and occupation — clergymen, 
physicians, lawyers, teachers — a clear majority of whom 
seem to have been set against the ultimate measures of the 
Revolution. 

Finally, and in general, it may be said that a majority 
of those who, of whatever occupation, of whatever grade 
of culture or of wealth, would now be described as con- 
servative people, were Loyalists during the American 
Revolution. And by way of concession to the authority 
and force of truth, what has to be said respecting the 



6o READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

personal quality commonly attaching to those who, in any 
age or country, are liable to be classed as conservative 
people? Will it be denied that within that order of per- 
sons one may usually find at least a fair portion of cultiva- 
tion, of the moral thoughtfulness, of the personal purity 
and honor, existing in the entire community to which they 
happen to belong? 

Precisely this description, at any rate, applies to the con- 
servative class in the American Colonies during that 
epoch, — a majority of whom dissented from those ex- 
treme measures which at last transformed into a revolution 
a political movement which began with the avowed pur- 
pose of confining itself to a struggle for redress of griev- 
ances, and within the limits of constitutional opposition. 
If, for example, we consider the point with reference to 
cultivation and moral refinement, it may seem to us a 
significant fact that among the members of the Loyalist 
party are to be found the names of a great multitude of 
the graduates of our colonial colleges — especially of 
Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, and Pennsyl- 
vania. Thus, in an act of banishment passed by Massa- 
chusetts, in September, 1778, against the most prominent 
of the Tory leaders in that State, one may now read the 
names of three hundred and ten of her citizens. And 
who were they? Let us go over their names. Are these 
the names of profligates, and desperadoes, or even of men 
of slight and equivocal consideration? To any one at all 
familiar with the history of colonial New England, that 
list of men, denounced to exile and loss of property on ac- 
count of their opinions, will read almost like the beadroll 
of the oldest and noblest families concerned in the found- 
ing and upbuilding of New England civilization. More- 
over, of that catalogue of three hundred and ten men of 
Massachusetts, banished for an offense to which the most 
of them appear to have been driven by conscientious con- 
victions, more than sixty were graduates of Harvard. 
This fact is probably a typical one; and of the whole body 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 6l 

of the Loyalists throughout the thirteen Colonies, it must 
be said that it contained, as one of its ablest antagonists 
long after admitted, '' more than a third of influential char- 
acters," — that is, a very considerable portion of the cus- 
tomary chiefs and representatives of conservatism in each 
community. 

M. C. Tyler: The Loyalists in the American Revolu- 
tion, in the American Historical Review, 1896, Vol I, pp. 
27-31. 

Questions 

In what Colonies were the Loyalists most numerous? How did 
their numbers compare with those of the Revolutionary party? 
Name the different social classes that recruited the Loyalist party. 
On which side were conservative members of society in general to 
be found? What is said of the number of college graduates among 
the Loyalists? What was the standing of the Loyalists banished 
from Massachusetts ? 

XIII 

THE UNITED STATES AFTER THE 
REVOLUTION 

Brissot de Warville (1754-1793) is famous in the history of 
the French Revolution. He became a leader of the Girondist, 
or moderate republican, party in the Revolution and was guil- 
lotined in 1793 when his party was overthrown in the National 
Convention by the Jacobins, or radicals. 

He viewed the United States with the ideas afterwards mani- 
fest in the French Revolution — that too great refinement in 
civilization with resulting distinctions between different classes 
in society weakens private morals and thereby renders a State 
corrupt. Man, he thought, was happiest living a simple life, 
with comfort and not luxury, meeting his fellows as social 
equals, with as little interference as possible from government. 
The United States of his day with its rural population, demo- 
cratic habits and popular self-control, seemed to demonstrate 
his theories. Accordingly his book gives us an illustration of 
what was perhaps best and most characteristically American 



62 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

in the life of our people in the late eighteenth century. He 
published his reflections in New Travels in the United States 
of America Performed in 1/88. 

Letter III. Journey from Boston to New-York by land, 
pth Aug., iy88. 

The distance of these towns is about two hundred and 
fifty miles. Many persons have united in establishing a 
kind of diligence, or public stage, which passes regularly 
for the convenience of travelers. In the summer season 
the journey is performed in four days. 

We set out from Boston at four o'clock in the morning, 
and passed through the handsome town of Cambridge. 
The country appears well cultivated as far as Weston, 
where we breakfasted. Thence we passed to Worcester to 
dinner, forty-eight miles from Boston. This town is ele- 
gant, and well peopled : the printer, Isaiah Thomas, has 
rendered it famous through all the Continent. He prints 
most of the works which appear; and it must be granted 
that his editions are correct. . . . The tavern, where we 
had a good American dinner, is a charming house of 
wood, well ornamented ; it is kept by Mr. Pease, one of the 
proprietors of the Boston stage. He has much merit for 
his activity and industry ; but it is to be hoped he will 
change the present plan so far as it respects his horses : they 
are overdone with the length and difficulty of the courses, 
which ruins them in a short time, besides retarding very 
much the progress. 

We slept the first night at Spenser, a new village in the 
midst of the woods. The house of the tavern was but 
half built; but the part that was finished had an air of 
cleanliness which pleases, because it announces that degree 
of competence, those moral and delicate habits, which are 
never seen in our villages. The chambers were neat, the 
beds good, the sheets clean, supper passable — cyder, tea, 
punch, and all for fourteen pence a-head. There were 
four of us. Now compare, my friend, this order of things 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 63 

with what you have a thousand times seen m our French 
taverns — chambers dirty and hideous, beds infected with 
bugs, those insects which Sterne calls the rightful inhab- 
itants of taverns, if indeed long possession gives a right; 
sheets ill-washed, and exhaling a fetid odour ; bad covering, 
wine adulterated, and every thing at its weight in gold: 
greedy servants, who are complaisant only in proportion 
to your equipage, groveling towards a rich traveler, and 
insolent towards him whom they suspect of mediocrity. 
Such are the eternal torments of travellers in France: add 
to this, the fear of being robbed, the precautions necessary 
to be taken every night to prevent it; while, in the United 
States, you travel without fear, as without arms ; and you 
sleep quietly among the woods, in an open chamber of a 
house whose doors shut without locks. And now judge 
which country merits the name of civilized, and which 
bears the aspect of the greatest general happiness. 

We left Spenser at four o'clock in the morning. New 
carriage, new proprietor. It was a carriage without 
springs, a kind of waggon. A Frenchman who was with 
me began, at the first jolt, to curse the carriage, the driver, 
and the country. Let us wait, said I, a little, before we 
form a judgment: every custom has its cause; there is 
doubtless some reason why this kind of carriage is pre- 
ferred to one hung with springs. In fact, by the time we 
had run thirty miles among the rocks, we were convinced 
that a carriage with springs would very soon have been 
overset and broke. 

The traveller is well recompensed for the fatigue of this 
route by the variety of romantic situations, by the beauty 
of the prospects which it offers at each step, by the per- 
petual contrast of savage nature and the efforts of art. 
Those vast ponds of water, which lose themselves in the 
woods; those rivulets, that wash the meadow, newly 
snatched from uncultivated nature; those neat houses, 
scattered among the forests, and containing swarms of 
children, joyous and healthy, and well clad; those fields. 



64 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

covered with trunks of trees, whose destruction is com- 
mitted to the hand of time, and which are covered under 
the leaves of Indian corn ; those oaks, which preserve still 
the image of their ancient vigour, but which, girdled at the 
bottom, raise no longer to heaven but dry and naked 
branches, which the first stroke of wind must bring to the 
earth — all these objects, so new to an European, arrest 
him, absorb him, and plunge him into an agreeable reverie. 
The depths of the forests, the prodigious size and height 
of the trees, call to his mind the time when the savages 
were the only inhabitants of this country. This ancient 
tree has beheld them ; they filled these forests ; they have 
now given place to another generation. The cultivator 
fears no more their vengeance ; his musket, formerly his 
companion at the plow, now rests suspended in his house. 
Alone with his wife and children in the midst of the forests, 
he sleeps quietly, he labors in peace, and he is happy. 
Such were the ideas which occupied me the greater part 
of my journey: they sometimes gave place to others, aris- 
ing from the view of the country houses, which are seen 
at small distances through all the forests of Massachusetts. 
Neatness embellishes them all. They have frequently but 
one story and a garret; their walls are papered; tea and 
coffee appear on their tables ; their daughters, clothed in 
callicoes, display the traits of civility, frankness, and 
decency — virtues which always follow contentment and 
ease. Almost all these houses are inhabited by men who 
are both cultivators and artizans ; one is a tanner, another 
a shoemaker, another sells goods ; but all are farmers. 
The country stores are well assorted; you find in the 
same shop hats, nails, liquors. This order of things is 
necessary in a new settlement : it is to be hoped that it will 
continue; for this general retail occupies less hands, and 
detaches fewer from the great object of agriculture. It is 
not supposed that one third of the land of Massachusetts 
is under cultivation ; it is difficult to say when it will all be 
so, considering the invitations of the western country 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 65 

and the province of Maine. But the uncleared lands are 
all located, and the proprietors have inclosed them with 
fences of different sorts. These several kinds of fences 
are composed of different materials, which announce the 
different degrees of culture in the country. Some are com- 
posed of the light branches of trees; others, of the trunks 
of trees laid one upon the other; a third sort is made of 
long pieces of wood, supporting each other by making 
angles at the end ; a fourth kind is made of long pieces of 
hewn timber, supported at the ends by passing into holes 
made in an upright post; a fifth is like the garden fences 
in England ; the last kind is piade of stones thrown together 
to the height of three feet. This last is most durable, and 
is common in Massachusetts. ... A town, you know, in the 
interior of America, designates an extent of eight or ten 
miles, where are scattered a hundred or two hundred 
houses. . . . 

Letter V. On New York. 

... If there is a town on the American continent where 
the English luxury displays its follies, it is New York. You 
will find here the English fashions. In the dress of the 
women you will see the most brilliant silks, gauzes, hats, 
and borrowed hair. Equipages are rare; but they are ele- 
gant. The men have more simplicity in their dress; they 
disdain gewgaws, but they take their revenge in the luxury 
of the table. 

Luxury forms already, in this town, a class of men very 
dangerous in society — I mean bachelors. The expence of 
women causes matrimony to be dreaded by men. 

Tea forms, as in England, the basis of the principal par- 
ties of pleasure. Fruits, though more attended to in this 
State, are far from possessing the beauty and goodness 
of those of Europe. I have seen trees, in September, 
loaded at once with apples and with flowers. 

M. de Crevecoeur is right in his description of the 
abundance and good quality of provisions at New York, 
6 



66 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

in vegetables, flesh, and especially in fish. It is difficult to 
unite so many advantages in one place. Provisions are 
dearer in New York than in any other of the northern or 
middle States. Many things, especially those of luxury, 
are dearer here than in France. A hair-dresser asks twenty 
shillings per month; washing costs four shillings for a 
dozen pieces. 

Strangers who, having lived a long time in America, tax 
the Americans with cheating, have declared to me, that 
this accusation must be confined to the towns, and that in 
the country you will find them honest. The French are 
the most forward in making these complaints; and they 
believe that the Americans are more trickish with them 
than with the English. If this were a fact, I should not 
be astonished at it. The French whom I have seen are 
eternally crying up the services which their nation has 
rendered to the Americans, and opposing their manners 
and customs, decrying their government, exalting the fa- 
vours rendered by the French government towards the 
Americans, and diminishing those of Congress to the 
French. . . . 

These prices were about double in New York dur- 
ing the war to what they are now. Boarding and lodg- 
ing by the week is from four to six dollars. The fees of 
lawyers are out of all proportion ; they are, as in England, 
excessive. Physicians have not the same advantage in this 
respect as lawyers: the good health generally enjoyed here, 
renders them little necessary; yet they are sufficiently nu- 
merous. . . . Whilst everywhere in Europe the villages 
and towns are falling to ruin, rather than augmenting, new 
edifices are here rising on all sides. New York was in 
great part consumed by fire in the time of the war. The 
vestiges of this terrible conflagration disappear; the activity 
which reigns everywhere, announces a rising prosperity ; 
they enlarge in every quarter, and extend their streets. 
Elegant buildings, in the English style, take place of those 
sharp-roofed sloping houses of the Dutch. You find some 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 67 

still standing in the Dutch style ; they afford some pleasure 
to the European observer; they trace to him the origin of 
this colony, and the manners of those who inhabit it. . . . 

Letter XXV. On Philadelphia, its Buildings, Police, etc. 

. . . Philadelphia may be considered as the metropolis 
of the United States. It is certainly the finest town, and 
the best built ; it is the most wealthy, though not the most 
luxurious. You find here more men of information, more 
political and literary knowledge, and more learned socie- 
ties. . . . 

At ten o'clock in the evening all is tranquil in the streets ; 
the profound silence which reigns there is only interrupted 
by the voice of the watchmen, who are in small numbers, 
and who form the only patrole. The streets are lighted by 
lamps, placed like those of London. 

On the side of the streets are footways of brick, and 
gutters constructed of brick or wood. Strong posts are 
placed to prevent carriages from passing on the footways. 
All the streets are furnished with public pumps in great 
numbers. At the door of each house are placed two 
benches, where the family sit at evening to take the fresh 
air, and amuse themselves in looking at the passengers. 
It is certainly a bad custom, as the evening air is unhealth- 
ful, and the exercise is not sufficient to correct this evil, 
for they never walk here; they supply the want of walk- 
ing by riding out into the country. They have few coaches 
at Philadelphia. You see many handsome waggons, which 
are used to carry the family into the country ; they are a 
kind of long carriage, light and open, and may contain 
twelve persons. They have many chairs and sulkeys, open 
on all sides ; the former may carry two persons, the latter 
only one. . . . Philadelphia is built on a regular plan : long 
and large streets cross each other at right angles: this reg- 
ularity, which is a real ornament, is at first embarrassing to 
a stranger ; he has much difficulty in finding himself, espe- 
cially as the streets are not inscribed, and the doors not 



68 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

numbered. It is strange that the Quakers, who are so 
fond of order, have not adopted these two conveniences ; 
that they have not borrowed them from the Enghsh, of 
whom they have borrowed so many things. This double 
defect is a torment to strangers. The shops which adorn 
the principal streets are remarkable for their neatness. 

The State-house, w^here the Legislature assembles, is a 
handsome building: by its side they are building a mag- 
nificent house of justice. 

Mr. Raynal has exaggerated every thing; the buildings, 
the library, the streets : he speaks of streets loo feet wide ; 
there is none of this width, except Market-street ; they are 
generally from 50 to 60 feet wide. He speaks of wharfs 
of 200 feet : there is none such here ; the wharfs in gen- 
eral are small and niggardly. . . . 

Behind the State-house is a public garden ; it is the only 
one that exists in Philadelphia. It is not large ; but it is 
agreeable, and one may breathe in it. It is composed of 
a number of verdant squares, intersected by alleys. 

All the space from Front-street on the Delaware to 
Front-street on the Schuylkill, is already distributed into 
squares for streets and houses : they build here, but not 
so briskly as at New- York. 

Letter XXXIX. Journey from Boston to Portsmouth. 
October, 1/88. 

I left Boston the 2d of October, after dining with my wor- 
thy friend Mr. Barret ; to whom I cannot pay too sincere a 
tribute of praise for his amiable qualities, or of gratitude 
for the readiness he has manifested on all occasions in 
procuring me information on the objects of my research. 
We slept at Salem, fifteen miles from Boston ; an excellent 
gravelly road, bordered with woods and meadows. This 
road passes the fine bridge of Maiden, which I mentioned 
before, and the town of Linn remarkable for the manu- 
facture of women's shoes. It is calculated that more than 
an hundred thousand pairs are annually exported from this 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 69 

town. At Reading, not far from Linn, is a similar manu- 
facture of men's shoes. 

... It was cold, and we had a fire in a Franklin stove. 
These are common here, and those chimneys that have 
them not, are built as described by M. de Crevecoeur : they 
rarely smoke. The mistress of the tavern (Robinson) was 
taking tea with her daughters; they invited us to partake 
of it with them. — I repeat it, we have nothing like this in 
France. It is a general remark through 'all the United 
States; a tavern-keeper must be a respectable man, his 
daughters are well drest, and have an air of decency and 
civility. We had good provisions, good beds, attentive serv- 
ants ; neither the servants nor the coachmen ask any money. 
It is an excellent practice ; for this tax with us not only be- 
comes insupportable on account of the persecutions which 
it occasions, but it gives men an air of baseness, and ac- 
customs to the servility of avarice. 

J. P. Brissot de Warville: New Travels in the United 
States of America Performed in 1/88. Second Edition, 
Vol. I, pp. 97-102, 128-132, 266-270, 384-386. London, 
1794. 

Questions 

Compare Brissot's account of transportation from Boston to New 
York with that of the advertisement given in the next selection, 
page 70. How did Brissot think the comforts of American taverns 
compared with those in France ? What seems to have been the posi- 
tion of inn-keepers in the community? What would you judge was 
their social position and reputation in Europe? What did Brissot 
think were the advantages of rural life in New England? What 
evidences of luxury and good living did he note in New York? 
Reproduce Brissot's description of the city of Philadelphia and its 
manners. 



70 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 



XIV 

HOW THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 
TRAVELED 

This is an advertisement from a Worcester, Massachusetts, 
paper. It explains itself. 

Stages from Portsmouth in New Hampshire, to Savan- 
nah in Georgia: 

There is now a line of stages established from New 
Hampshire to Georgia, which go and return regularly, and 
carry the several mails, by order and permission of Con- 
gress. 

The stages from Boston to Hartford in Connecticut set 
out during the winter season from the house of Levi Pease, 
at the sign of the New York Stage, opposite the Mall, in 
Boston, every Monday and Thursday morning, precisely at 
5 o'clock, go as far as Worcester on the evenings of those 
days, and on the days following proceed to Palmer, and on 
the third day reach Hartford ; the first stage reaches the 
city of New York on Saturday evening following. 

The stages from New York for Boston set out on the 
same days, and reach Hartford at the same time as the 
Boston stages. 

The stages from Boston exchange passengers with the 
stages from Hartford at Spencer, and the Hartford stages 
exchange with those from New York at Hartford. Pas- 
sengers are again exchanged at Stratford ferry, and not 
again until their arrival in New York. 

By the present regulation of the stages it is certainly 
the most convenient and expeditious way of traveling that 
can possibly be had in America, and in order to make it 
the cheapest, the proprietors of the stages have lowered 
their prices from four pence to three pence a mile, with lib- 
erty to passengers to carry fourteen pounds baggage. 
In the summer season the stages are to run with the 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 71 

mail three times in a week instead of twice, as in the win- 
ter, by which means those who take passage at Boston, in 
the stage which sets off on Monday morning, may arrive 
at New York on the Thursday evening following, and all 
the mails during that season are to be but four days going 
from Boston to New York, and so from New York to Bos- 
ton. 

Those who intend taking passage in the stages must 
leave their names and baggage the evening preceding the 
morning that the stage sets off, at the several places where 
the stages put up, and pay one half of their passage to the 
place where the first exchange of passengers is made, if 
bound so far, and if not, one half of their passage so far 
as they are bound. 

N. B. Way passengers will be accommodated when the 
stages are not full at the same rate, viz., 3 pence only per 
mile. 

Said Pease keeps good lodging, etc., for gentlemen travel- 
ers, and stabling for horses. 

Boston, January 2, 1786. — Massachusetts Spy, or the 
Worcester Gazette, January 5^ lySd. Ad. reprinted in. 

A Century of Population Growth, Bureau of the Census, 
1909, p. 22. 

Questions 

How many days did it require to travel from Boston to New York 
by stage? How much did it cost? What baggage were passengers 
permitted to carry? 

XV 

HOW THE DEFECTS OF THE FEDERAL UNION 
MAY BE REMEDIED 

We have in this selection portions of No. 15 of the Federal- 
ist, a number written by Alexander Hamilton. The Federalist 
is made up of a series of essays written in support of the Con- 
stitution, and published in various New York newspapers, while 
the Constitution was before the States for adoption or rejection. 



'J2 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

John Jay wrote five of the essays; the rest were written by 
James Madison and Hamilton. They were prepared in accord 
with a carefully devised plan; they disclose an astonishing 
grasp of the principles of government and of human society ; and 
they present, in a clear and simple style, the scope, meaning, 
and character of the Constitution. Though written for im- 
mediate political effect, they continue to constitute a commen- 
tary on the Constitution of immense value. 

The extract here given considers the anarchy and confusion 
that prevailed under the A_rticles of Confederation, and traces 
it to defects in the government of the United States. The con- 
clusion is that there can be no national government in the United 
States unless that government has the right to exercise control 
not on State governments but over the persons of individual 
citizens. 

We may, indeed, with propriety be said to have reached 
almost the last stage of National humiliation. There is 
scarcely anything that can wound the pride or degrade the 
character of an independent nation, which we do not ex- 
perience. Are there engagements, to the performance of 
which w^e are held by every tie respectable among men? 
These are the subjects of constant and unblushing viola- 
tion. Do we owe debts to foreigners and to our own citi- 
zens, contracted in a time of imminent peril, for the 
preservation of our political existence? These remain 
without any proper or satisfactory provision for their dis- 
charge. Have we valuable territories and important posts 
in the possession of a foreign power, which, by express 
stipulations, ought long since to have been surrendered? 
These are still retained, to the prejudice of our interest not 
less than of our rights. Are we in a condition to resent or 
to repel the aggression? We have neither troops, nor 
treasury, nor government. Are we even in a condition to 
remonstrate wnth dignity? The just imputations on our 
own faith in respect to the same treaty ought first to be 
removed. Are we entitled, by nature and compact, to a 
free participation in the navigation of the Mississippi? 
Spain excludes us from it. Is public credit an indispens- 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION JZ 

able resource in time of public danger? We seem to have 
abandoned its cause as desperate and irretrievable. Is 
commerce of importance to national wealth? Ours is at 
the lowest point of declension. Is respectability in the 
eyes of foreign powers a safeguard against foreign en- 
croachments ? The imbecility of our Government even for- 
bids them to treat with us : our ambassadors abroad are 
the mere pageants of mimic sovereignty. Is a violent and 
unnatural decrease in the value of land, a symptom of Na- 
tional distress? The price of improved land, in most parts 
of the country, is much lower than can be accounted for by 
the quantity of waste land at market, and can only be 
fully explained by that want of private and public con- 
fidence, which are so alarmingly prevalent among all ranks, 
and which have a direct tendency to depreciate property 
of every kind. Is private credit the friend and patron of 
industry? That most useful kind which relates to borrow- 
ing and lending is reduced within the narrowest limits, 
and this still more from an opinion of insecurity than from 
the scarcity of money. To shorten an enumeration of par- 
ticulars which can afford neither pleasure nor instruction, 
it may in general be demanded, what indication is there of 
National disorder, poverty, and insignificance, that would 
befall a community so peculiarly blessed with natural ad- 
vantages, as we are, which does not form a part of the 
dark catalogue of our public misfortunes? 

This is the melancholy situation, to which we have been 
brought by those very maxims and councils, which would 
now deter us from adopting the proposed Constitution ; and 
which, not content with having conducted us to the brink 
of a precipice, seem resolved to plunge us into the abyss 
that awaits us below. Here, my countrymen, impelled by 
every motive that ought to influence an enlightened peo- 
ple, let us make a firm stand for our safety, our tranquillity, 
our dignity, our reputation. Let us at last break the fatal 
charm which has too long seduced us from the paths of 
felicity and prosperity. 



74 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

It is true, as has been before observed, that facts, too 
stubborn to be resisted, have produced a species of general 
assent to the abstract proposition, that there exist material 
defects in our National system; but the usefulness of the 
concession, on the part of the old adversaries of Federal 
measures, is destroyed by a strenuous opposition to a 
remedy, upon the only principles that can give it a chance 
of success. While they admit that the Government of the 
United States is destitute of energy, they contend against 
conferring upon it those powers which are requisite to 
supply that energy. They seem still to aim at things re- 
pugnant and irreconcilable; at an augmentation of Fed- 
eral authority, without a diminution of State authority ; at 
sovereignty in the Union, and complete independence in the 
members. . . . This renders a full display of the principal 
defects of the Confederation necessary, in order to show, 
that the evils we experience do not proceed from minute 
or partial imperfections, but from fundamental errors in 
the structure of the building, which cannot be amended 
otherwise than by an alteration of the first principles and 
main pillars of the fabric. 

The great and radical vice in the construction of the 
existing Confederation, is in the principle of legislation for 
States or Governments, in their corporate or collective 
capacities, and as contradistinguished from the individuals 
of which they consist. Though this principle does not 
run through all the powers delegated to the Union, yet it 
pervades and governs those on which the efficacy of the 
rest depends. Except as to the rule of apportionment, the 
United States have an indefinite discretion to make requisi- 
tions for men and money ; but they have no authority to 
raise either, by regulations extending to the individual citi- 
zens of America. The consequence of this is that, though 
in theory their resolutions concerning those objects are 
laws, constitutionally binding on the members of the Union, 
yet in practice they are mere recommendations, which the 
States observe or disregard at their option. . . . 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 75 

There is nothing absurd or impracticable, in the idea of 
a league or alliance between independent nations, for cer- 
tain defined purposes precisely stated in a treaty ; regulating 
all the details of time, place, circumstance, and quantity ; 
leaving nothing to future discretion ; and depending for 
its execution on the good faith of the parties. Compacts 
of this kind exist among all civilized nations, subject to 
the usual vicissitudes of peace and war, of observance and 
non-observance, as the interests or passions of the con- 
tracting powers dictate. In the early part of the present 
century, there was an epidemical rage in Europe for this 
species of compacts ; from which the politicians of the times 
fondly hoped for benefits which were never realized. With 
a view to establishing the equilibrium of power and the 
peace of that part of the world, all the resources of negotia- 
tion were exhausted, and triple and quadruple alliances 
were formed ; but they were scarcely formed before they 
were broken, giving an instructive but afflicting lesson to 
mankind, how little dependence is to be placed on treaties 
which have no other sanction than the obligations of good 
faith ; and which oppose general considerations of peace 
and justice to the impulse of any immediate interest or 
passion. 

If the particular States in this country are disposed to 
stand in a similar relation to each other, and to drop the 
project of a general discretionary superintendence, the 
scheme would indeed be pernicious, and would entail upon 
us all the mischiefs which have been enumerated under the 
first head ; but it would have the merit of being at least 
consistent and practicable. Abandoning all views towards 
a Confederate Government, this would bring us to a simple 
alliance, offensive and defensive; and would place us in 
a situation to be alternately friends and enemies of each 
other, as our mutual jealousies and rivalships, nourished 
by the intrigues of foreign nations, should prescribe to us. 

But if we are unwilling to be placed in this perilous 
situation; if we still adhere to the design of a National 



'^(^ READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Government, or, which is the same thing, of a superintend- 
ing power under the directions of a common council, we 
must resolve to incorporate into our plan those ingredients, 
which may be considered as forming the characteristic dif- 
ference between a league and a government ; we must ex- 
tend the authority of the Union to the persons of the citi- 
zens — the only proper objects of government. 

Government implies the power of making law^s. It is 
essential to the idea of a law, -that it be attended with a 
sanction ; or, in other w^ords, a penalty or punishment for 
disobedience. If there be no penalty annexed to disobedi- 
ence, the resolutions or commands which pretend to be 
law^s, w^ll in fact amount to nothing more than advice or 
recommendation. This penalty, wdiatever it may be, can 
only be inflicted in two ways ; by the agency of the courts 
and ministers of justice, or by military force ; by the 
coercion of the magistracy, or by the coercion of arms. 
The first kind can evidently apply only to men ; the last 
kind must of necessity be employed against bodies politic, 
or communities or States. It is evident that there is no 
process of a court by which their observance of the laws 
can, in the last resort, be enforced. Sentences may be de- 
nounced against them for violations of their duty ; but 
these sentences can only be carried into execution by the 
sword. In an association, where the general authority is 
confined to the collective bodies of the communities that 
compose it, every breach of the laws must involve a state 
of war; and military execution must become the only in- 
strument of civil obedience. Such a state of things can 
certainly not deserve the name of Government, nor would 
any prudent man choose to commit his happiness to it. 

There was a time when we were told that breaches by 
the States of the regulations of the Federal authority were 
not to be expected, that a sense of common interest would 
preside over the conduct of the respective members, and 
would beget a full compliance with all the constitutional 
requisitions of the Union. This language at the present 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION y^ 

day would appear as wild as a great part of what we now 
hear from the same quarter will be thought when we shall 
have received further lessons from that best oracle of wis- 
dom, experience. It at all times betrayed an ignorance of 
the true springs by which human conduct is actuated, and 
belied the original inducements to the establishment of civil 
power. Why has Government been instituted at all? Be- 
cause the passions of men will not conform to the dictates 
of reason and justice without constraint. Has it been 
found that bodies of men act with more rectitude or greater 
disinterestedness than individuals? The contrary of this 
has been inferred by all accurate observers of the conduct 
of mankind; and the inference is founded on obvious rea- 
sons. Regard to reputation has a less active influence, when 
the infamy of a bad action is to be divided among a num- 
ber, than when it is to fall singly upon one. A spirit of 
faction, which is apt to mingle its poison in the delibera- 
tions of all bodies of men, will often hurry the persons of 
whom they are composed into improprieties and excesses, 
for which they would blush in a private capacity. . . . 

If, therefore, the measures of the Confederacy cannot be 
executed, without the intervention of the particular ad- 
ministrations, there will be little prospect of their being 
executed at all. The rulers of the respective members, 
whether they have a constitutional right to do it or not, 
will undertake to judge of the propriety of the measures 
themselves. They will consider the conformity of the thing 
proposed or required to their immediate interests or aims ; 
the momentary conveniences or inconveniences that would 
attend its adoption. All this will be done ; and in a spirit 
of interested and suspicious scrutiny, without that knowl- 
edge of national circumstances and reasons of state, which 
is essential to a right judgment, and with that strong pre- 
dilection in favor of local objects, which can hardly fail to 
mislead the decision. The same process must be repeated 
in every member of which the body is constituted ; and the 



y^ READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

execution of the plans, framed by the councils of the whole, 
will always fluctuate on the discretion of the ill-informed and 
prejudiced opinion of every part. Those who have been 
conversant in the proceedings of popular assemblies; who 
have seen how difficult it often is, when there is no ex- 
terior pressure of circumstances, to bring them to har- 
monious resolutions on important points, will readily con- 
ceive how impossible it must be to induce a number of such 
assemblies, deliberating at a distance from each other, at 
different times, and under different impressions, long to 
cooperate in the same views and pursuits. 

In our case, the concurrence of thirteen distinct sov- 
ereign wills is requisite under the Confederation to the 
complete execution of every important measure that pro- 
ceeds from the Union. It has happened, as was to have 
been foreseen. The m.easures of the Union have not been 
executed ; the delinquencies of the States have, step by 
step, matured themselves to an extreme which has at length 
arrested all the wheels of the National Government, and 
brought them to an awful stand. Congress at this time 
scarcely possess the means of keeping up the forms of ad- 
ministration, till the States can have time to agree upon a 
more substantial substitute for the present shadow of a 
Federal Government. Things did not come to this des- 
perate extremity at once. The causes which have been 
specified produced at first only unequal and disproportion- 
ate degrees of compliance with the requisitions of the 
Union. The greater deficiencies of some States furnished 
the pretext of example, and the temptation of interest to 
the complying, or to the least delinquent States. Why 
should we do m.ore in proportion than those who are em- 
barked with us in the same political voyage? Why should 
we consent to bear more than our proper share of the com- 
mon burden? These were suggestions which human self- 
ishness could not withstand, and which even speculative 
men, who looked forward to remote consequences, could 
not without hesitation combat. Each State, yielding to the 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 79 

persuasive voice of immediate interest or convenience, has 
successively withdrawn its support, till the frail and totter- 
ing edifice seems ready to fall upon our heads, and to 
crush us beneath its ruins. Publius. 

The Foederalist, Edited by Henry B. Dawson, Vol. I, 
pp. 91-100. New York, 1863. 

Questions 

Explain the allusions to slights on the United States by foreign 
powers. Why was the Congress of the Confederation unable to 
resent them? What was the condition of commerce and internal 
credit? Was its condition traceable in Hamilton's opinion to eco- 
nomic causes or to the instability of the government? Under the 
Articles of Confederation could Congress legislate for States or 
State governments, or for individuals? Had experience shown that 
reliance on the willingness of the State governments to live up to 
their obligations under the Articles was well placed ? In effect, 
was there any difference between the Confederation and an alliance 
of independent States? Explain carefully the difference between a 
coercion by arms and a coercion by the magistrate or by law. 
Which form would be applicable to States? If coercion is fre- 
quently applied to States, what is likely to be the result? What 
was the difficulty of enforcing orders of the Congress, which must 
in last resort be carried into effect by the action of the State gov- 
ernments? If certain of those governments refused to obey requisi- 
tions on them for men or money could the Congress of the Con- 
federation force them to comply? What was the effect on States, 
that formerly contributed their quota, of seeing that certain States 
neglected to bear their share of the burden and did it with im- 
punity ? 

XVI 

THE FEDERAL CONVENTION, 1787 

The debates in the Federal Convention were not reported 
or taken down by an official reporter, the secretary's minutes 
are meager in the extreme, and the sessions were rigidly secret ; 
there were no newspaper reports of what was done. We know 
what took place in that assembly, the most important in our 
history, from notes made by some of the delegates, and above 
all from notes made by James Madison with characteristic in- 



8o READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

dustry and intelligence. Had it not been for Madison's faith- 
ful toil, we should have had little idea of the real discussions 
of the Convention. The extracts given below from Madison's 
jiotes, sometimes called Madison's Journal, include: first, a por- 
tion of his introduction, written some years after the Conven- 
tion met, in which he explains the circumstances under which 
the Convention was called, the reasons inducing him to take 
notes, and the method he followed; second, Franklin's appeal 
on the last day for cordial support of the new Constitution, 

As a natural consequence of this distracted and dis- 
heartening condition of the Union, the Federal authority 
had ceased to be respected abroad, and dispositions were 
shown there, particularly in Great Britain, to take advan- 
tage of its imbecility, and to speculate on its approaching 
downfall. At home it had lost all confidence and credit; 
the unstable and unjust career of the States had also for- 
feited the respect and confidence essential to order and 
good government, involving a general de'cay of confidence 
and credit between man and man. It was found, moreover, 
that those least partial to popular government, or most 
distrustful of its efficacy, were yielding to anticipations, 
that from an increase of the confusion a government might 
result more congenial with their taste or their opinions ; 
whilst those most devoted to the principles and forms of 
Republics were alarmed for the cause of liberty itself, at 
stake in the American experiment, and anxious for a sys- 
tem that would avoid the inefficacy of a mere Confed- 
eracy, without passing into the opposite extreme of a con- 
solidated government. It was known that there were in- 
dividuals who had betrayed a bias towards monarchy, and 
there had always been some not unfavorable to a partition 
of the Union into several confederacies, either from a 
better chance of figuring on a sectional theater, or that the 
sections would require stronger governments, or by their 
hostile conflicts lead to a monarchical consolidation. The 
idea of dismemberment had recently made its appearance 
in the newspapers.* 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 8l 

Such were the defects, the deformities, the diseases and 
the ominous prospects, for which the Convention were to 
provide a remedy, and which ought never to be overlooked 
in expounding and appreciating the constitutional charter, 
the remedy that was provided. 

As a sketch on paper, the earliest, perhaps, of a con- 
stitutional government for the Union (organized into the 
regular departments, with physical means operating on in- 
dividuals) to be sanctioned by the people of the States, 
acting in their original and sovereign character, was con- 
tained in the letters of James Madison to Thomas Jeffer- 
son of the 19th of March; to Governor Randolph of the 
8th of April; and to General Washington of the i6th of 
April, 1787, for which see their respective dates. 

The feature in these letters which vested in the general 
authority a negative on the laws of the States, was sug- 
gested by the negative in the head of the British Empire, 
which prevented collisions between the parts and the whole, 
and between the parts themselves. It was supposed that 
the substitution of an elective and responsible authority 
for an hereditary and irresponsible one, would avoid the 
appearance even of a departure from Republicanism. But 
although the subject was so viewed in the Convention, and 
the votes on it were more than once equally divided, it was 
finally and justly abandoned, as, apart from other objec- 
tions, it was not practicable among so many States, in- 
creasing in number, and enacting, each of them, so many 
laws. Instead of the proposed negative, the objects of it 
were left as finally provided for in the Constitution. 

On the arrival of the Virginia deputies at Philadelphia, 
it occurred to them, that, from the early and prominent 
part taken by that State in bringing about the Convention, 
some initiative step might be expected from them. The 
resolutions introduced by Governor Randolph were the 
result of consultation on the subject, with an understanding 
that they left all the deputies entirely open to the lights of 
discussion, and free to concur in any alterations or modifi- 
7 



$2 READINGS IX AMERICAN* HISTORY 

cations which their reflections and judgments might ap- 
prove. The resolutions, as the journals show, became the 
basis on which the proceedings of the Convention com- 
menced, and to the developments, variations and modifica- 
tions of which the plan of government proposed by the 
Convention may be traced. 

The curiositv I had felt durins: mv researches into the 
history of the most distinguished confederacies, particu- 
larly those of antiquity, and the deficiency I found in the 
means of satisfying it. more especially in what related to 
the process, the principles, the reasons, and the anticipa- 
tions, which prevailed in the formation of them, deter- 
mined me to preserv'e, as far as I could, an exact account of 
what might pass in the Convention while executing its 
trust ; with the magnitude of which I was duly impressed, 
as I was by the gratification promised to future curiosity 
by an authentic exhibition of the objects, the opinions, and 
the reasonings, from which the new system of government 
was to receive its peculiar structure and organization. Nor 
was I unaware of the value of such a contribution to the 
fund of materials for the history of a Constitution on 
which would be staked the happiness of a people great 
even in its infancy, and possibly the cause of liberty 
throughout the world. 

In pursuance of the task I had assimied, I chose a seat 
in front of the presiding member, with the other members 
on my right and left hands. In this favorable position for 
hearing all that passed, I noted, in terms legible and in 
abbreviations and marks intelligible, to myself, what was 
read from the chair or spoken by the members ; and, losing 
not a moment unnecessarily between the adjournment and 
reassembling of the Convention. I was enabled to write out 
my daily notes during the session, or within a few finish- 
ing days after its close, in the extent and form preserved, 
in my own hand, on my files. 

In the labor and correctness of this, I was not a little 
aided by practice, and by a familiarity with the style and 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 83 

the train of observation and reasoning which characterized 
the principal speakers. It happened, also, that I was not 
absent a single day, nor more than a casual fraction of an 
hour in any day, so that I could not have lost a single 
speech, unless a very short one. 

It may be proper to remark, that, with a very few ex- 
ceptions, the speeches were neither furnished, nor revised, 
nor sanctioned by the speakers, but written out from my 
notes, aided by the freshness of my recollections. A fur- 
ther remark may be proper, that views of the subject might 
occasionally be presented, in the speeches and proceedings, 
with a latent reference to a compromise on some middle 
ground by mutual concessions. The exceptions alluded to 
were, — first, the sketch furnished by Mr. Randolph of his 
speech on the introduction of his propositions, on the 29th 
of May ; secondly, the speech of Mr. Hamilton, who 
happened to call on me when putting the last hand to it, 
and who acknowledged its fidelity, without suggesting more 
than a very few verbal alterations which were made ; 
thirdly, the speech of Gouverneur Morris on the 2d of 
May, which was communicated to him on a like occa- 
sion, and who acquiesced in it without even a verbal change. 
The correctness of his language and the distinctness of his 
enunciation were particularly favorable to a reporter. 
The speeches of Dr. Franklin, excepting a few brief 
ones, were copied from the written ones read to the Con- 
vention by his colleague, Mr. Wilson, it being inconvenient 
to the doctor to remain long on his feet. 

Of the ability and intelligence of those who composed the 
Convention the debates and proceedings may be a test ; as 
the character of the work which was the offspring of their 
deliberations must be tested by the experience of the fu- 
ture, added to that of nearly half a century which has 
passed. 

But whatever may be the judgment pronounced on the 
competency of the architects of the Constitution, or what- 
ever may be the destiny of the edifice prepared by them. 



84 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

I feel it a duty to express my profound and solemn con- 
viction, derived from my intimate opportunity of observ- 
ing and appreciating the views of the Convention, collec- 
tively and individually, that there never was an assembly of 
men, charged with a great and arduous trust, who were more 
pure in their motives, or more exclusively or anxiously 
devoted to the object committed to them, than were the 
members of the Federal Convention of 1787 to the object 
of devising and proposing a constitutional system which 
should best supply the defects of that which it was to re- 
place, and best secure the permanent liberty and happiness 
of their country. 

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER \J. 

In Convention. — The engrossed Constitution being 
read — Dr. Franklin rose wath a speech in his hand, 
which he had reduced to writing for his own convenience, 
and which Mr. Wilson read in the words following: — 

" Mr. President : 

" I confess that there are several parts of this Constitu- 
tion which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure 
I shall never approve them. For, having lived long, I have 
experienced many instances of being obliged by better in- 
formation, or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even 
on important subjects, which I once thought right but 
found to be otherwise. It is therefore that, the older I 
grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to 
pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men, 
indeed, as well as most sects in religion, think themselves 
in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ 
from them, it is so far error. Steele, a Protestant, in a 
dedication, tells the Pope, that the only difference between 
our churches, in their opinions of the certainty of their 
doctrines, is ' the Church of Rome is infallible, and the 
Church of England is never in the wrong.' But though 
many private persons think almost as highly of their own 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 85 

infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so nat- 
urally as a certain French lady, who, in a dispute with 
her sister, said, * I don't know how it happens, sister, but 
I meet with nobody but myself that is always in the right — 
il ny a que moi qui a ton jours raison.' 

" In these sentiments, sir, I agree to this Constitution, 
with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a Gen- 
eral Government necessary for us, and there is no form of 
government, but what may be a blessing to the people if 
well administered; and believe further that this is likely 
to be well administered for a course of years, and can 
only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, 
when the people shall become so corrupted as to need 
despotic government, being incapable of any other. I 
doubt, too, whether any other Convention we can obtain 
may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you 
assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their 
joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all 
their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, 
their local interests and their selfish views. From such an 
assembly can a perfect production be expected? It there- 
fore astonishes me, sir, to find this system approaching so 
near to perfection as it does ; and I think it will astonish 
our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that 
our councils are confounded, like those of the builders of 
Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, 
only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one an- 
other's throats. Thus I consent, sir, to this Constitution, 
because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that 
it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors I 
sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a 
syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were 
born, and here they shall die. If everyone of us, in re- 
turning to our constituents, were to report the objections 
he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partisans in support 
of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and 
thereby lose all the salutary effects and great advantages 



86 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

resulting naturally in our favor among foreign nations, as 
well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent 
unanimity. Much of the strength and efficiency of any gov- 
ernment, in procuring and securing happiness to the people, 
depends on opinion — on the general opinion of the good- 
ness of the goverment as well as of the wisdom and in- 
tegrity of its governors. I hope, therefore, that for our 
own sakes as a part of the people, and for the sake of 
posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recom- 
mending this Constitution (if approved by Congress and 
confirmed by the conventions) wherever our influence may 
extend, and turn our future thoughts and endeavors to the 
means of having it well administered. 

^' On the whole, sir, I cannot help expressing a wish 
that every member of the Convention who may still have 
objections to it, would with me, on this occasion, doubt 
a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our 
unanimity, put his name to this instrument." He then 
moved that the Constitution be signed by the members, and 
offered the following as a convenient form, viz. : " Done in 
Convention by the unanimous consent of the States 
present, the seventeenth of September, &!c. In witness 
whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names." . . . 

The Constitution being signed by all the members, ex- 
cept Mr. Randolph, Mr. Mason and Mr. Gerry, who de- 
clined giving it the sanction of their names, the Conven- 
tion dissolved itself by an adjournment sine die. 

Whilst the last members were signing, Doctor Frank- 
lin, looking towards the President's chair, at the back of 
which a rising sun happened to be painted, observed to a 
few members near him that painters had found it difficult 
to distinguish in their art a rising from a setting sun. " I 
have," said he, *' often and often in the course of the ses- 
sion, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its 
issue, looked at that behind the President, without being 
able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now at 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 87 

length, I have the happiness to know that it is a rising, and 
not a setting sun." 

Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, by 
James Madison. Revised and Newly Arranged by Jona- 
than Elliot, pp. 120-122; 554-5; 565. Washington, 1845. 

Questions 

In 1787, what was the general opinion of the stability and perma- 
nence of the United States under the Articles of Confederation? 
How had the weakness of Congress injured the United States at 
home and abroad? What fears were entertained by Madison: (a) 
of the breaking up of the Union? (b) of the establishment of a 
monarchy? What led Madison to take his notes of the proceedings 
of the Convention ? What was his method ? How accurate and 
complete did he think his notes were? What reasons did Franklin 
give for a cordial support by all to the Constitution? 



XVII 
THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION 

William Pierce was a delegate from Georgia to the Federal 
Convention. His notes are not extensive, but they contain in- 
teresting material. A good exercise in the use of historical 
materials is afforded by the following excerpts. For instance, 
note that in almost all cases Pierce is inaccurate in his estimate 
of the ages of the members of the Convention ; as inaccurate as 
any man would be who undertook to guess at the ages of the 
men he chanced to be associated with for a few months. He is 
none too accurate in his accounts of their early lives and polit- 
ical careers in their own States; these things of course being 
in great part derived from hearsay. But his characterizations 
of the men themselves, of their personal appearance, habits of 
speech and thought, of their characters as they appear in de- 
bate, are excellent. Note his complete lack of animus against 
any particular person. 

Mr. King is a Man much distinguished for his eloquence 
and great parliamentary talents. He was educated in 
Massachusetts, and is said to have good classical as well 



88 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

as legal knowledge. He has served for three years in the 
Congress of the United States with great and deserved ap- 
plause, and is at this time high in the confidence and ap- 
probation of his Countrymen. This Gentleman is about 
thirty-three years of age/ about five feet ten Inches high, 
well formed, an handsome face, with a strong expressive 
Eye, and a sweet high toned voice. In his public speak- 
ing there is something peculiarly strong and rich in his ex- 
pression, clear, and convincing in his arguments, rapid and 
irresistible at times in his eloquence, but he is not always 
equal. His action is natural, swimming, and graceful, but 
there is a rudeness of manner sometimes accompanying it. 
But take him tout ensemble, he may with propriety be 
ranked among the Luminaries of the present Age. 

Dr. Johnson is a character much celebrated for his legal 
knowledge ; he is said to be one of the first classics in 
America, and certainly possesses a very strong and enlight- 
ened understanding. 

As an Orator, in my opinion, there is nothing in him that 
warrants the high reputation which he has for public speak- 
ingi There is something in the tone of his voice not pleas- 
ing to the Ear, but he is eloquent and clear, always abound- 
ing with information and instruction. He was once em- 
ployed as an Agent for the State of Connecticut to state 
her claims to certain landed territory before the British 
House of Commons ; this Oftice he discharged with so much 
dignity, and made such an ingenious display of his powers, 
that he laid the foundation of a reputation which will prob- 
ably last much longer than his own life. Dr. Johnson is 
about sixty years of age, possesses the manners of a Gen- 
tleman, and engages the Hearts of Men by the sweetness 
of his temper, and that afi^ectionate style of address with 
which he accosts his acquaintance. 

Mr. Sherman exhibits the oddest shaped character I ever 



King was born in 1755. 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 89 

remember to have met with. He is awkward, unmeaning, 
and unaccountably strange in his manner. But in his train 
of thinking there is something regular, deep, and compre- 
hensive ; yet the oddity of his address, the vulgarisms that 
accompany his public speaking, and that strange New Eng- 
land cant which runs through his public as well as his 
private speaking make everything that is connected with 
him grotesque and laughable ; and yet he deserves in- 
finite praise, no Man has a better Heart or a clearer Head. 
If he cannot embellish, he can furnish thoughts that are 
wise and useful. He is an able politician and extremely 
artful in accomplishing any particular object; — it is re- 
marked that he seldom fails. I am told he sits on the 
Bench in Connecticut, and is very correct in the discharge 
of his Judicial functions. In the early part of his life he 
was a Shoe-maker ; but despising the lowness of his condi- 
tion he turned Almanack-maker, and so progressed up- 
wards to a Judge. He has been several years a Member 
of Congress, and discharged the duties of his Office with 
honor and credit to himself, and advantage to the State 
he represented. He is about 60.- 

Mr. Elsworth ^ is a Judge of the Supreme Court in 
Connecticut; he is a Gentleman of a clear, deep, and copi- 
ous understanding; eloquent, and connected in public de- 
bate ; and always attentive to his duty. He is very happy 
in a reply, and choice in selecting such parts of his ad- 
versary's arguments as he finds make the strongest im- 
pressions — in order to take off the force of them, so as to 
admit the power of his own. Mr. Elsworth is about 37 
years of age, a Man much respected for his integrity and 
venerated for his abilities. 

Col. Hamilton is deservedly celebrated for his talents. 
He is a practitioner of the Law, and reputed to be a finished 

2 Sherman was born in 1721. 

3 Elsworth [Ellsworth] had been a judge of the Superior Court 
Qi Connecticut, He was born in 1745. 



90 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Scholar. To a clear and strong judgment he unites the 
ornaments of fancy, and whilst he is able, convincing, and 
engaging in his eloquence, the Heart and Head sympathize 
in approving him. Yet there is something too feeble in 
his voice to be equal to the strains of oratory — it is my 
opinion that he is rather a convincing Speaker, that [than] 
a blazing Orator. Col. Hamilton requires time to think, 
he inquires into every part of his subject with the search- 
ings of phylosophy, and when he comes forward he comes 
highly charged with interesting matter, there is no skim- 
ming over the surface of a subject with him, he must sink 
to the bottom to see what foundation it rests on. His lan- 
guage is not always equal, sometimes didactic like Boling- 
broke's, at others light and tripping like Stern's. His 
eloquence is not so defusive as to trifle with the senses, 
but he rambles just enough to strike and keep up the at- 
tention. He is about 33 years "* old, of small stature, and 
lean. His manners are tinctured with stiffness, and some- 
times with a degree of vanity that is highly disagreeable. 

Mr. Wilson ranks among the foremost in legal and 
political knowledge. He has joined to a fine genius all that 
can set him off and show him to advantage. He is well 
acquainted with Man, and understands all the passions that 
influence him. Government seems to have been his peculiar 
Study, all the political institutions of the World he knows 
in detail, and can trace the causes and effects of every 
revolution from the earliest stages of the Grecian common- 
wealth down to the present time. No man is more clear, 
copious, and comprehensive than Mr. Wilson, yet he is no 
great Orator. He draws the attention not by the charm of 
his eloquence, but by the force of his reasoning. He is 
about 45 years old. 

Mr. Governeur Morris is one of those Genius's in whom 
every species of talents combine to render him conspicuous 

* Hamilton was born in 1757. 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 91 

and flourishing in public debate. He winds through all the 
mazes of rhetoric, and throws around him such a glare that 
he charms, captivates, and leads away the senses of all who 
hear him. With an infinite streach of fancy he brings to 
view things when he is engaged in deep argumentation, that 
render all the labor of reasoning easy and pleasing. But 
with all these powers he is fickle and inconstant, never pur- 
suing one train of thinking, nor ever regular. He has 
gone through a very extensive course of reading, and is 
acquainted with all the sciences. No Man has more wit, 
nor can anyone engage the attention more than Mr. Morris. 
He was bred to the Law, but I am told he disliked the pro- 
fession, and turned Merchant. He is engaged in some 
great mercantile matters with his namesake Mr. Rob*. 
Morris. This Gentleman is about 38 years old, he has been 
unfortunate in losing one of his Legs, and getting all the 
flesh taken off his right arm by a scald, when a youth. ^ 

Mr. Maddison is a character who has long been in public 
life ; and, what is very remarkable, every Person seems to 
acknowledge his greatness. He blends together the pro- 
found politician, with the Scholar. In the management of 
every great question he evidently took the lead in the Con- 
vention, and tho' he cannot be called an Orator, he is a 
most agreeable, eloquent, and convincing Speaker. From 
a spirit of industry and application which he possesses in 
a most eminent degree, he always comes forward the best 
informed Man of any point in debate. The affairs of the 
United States, he perhaps has the most correct knowledge 
of, of any Man in the Union. He has been twice a Mem- 
ber of Congress, and was always thought one of the ablest 
Members that ever sat in that Council. Mr. Maddison is 
about 37 years ^ of age, a Gentleman of great modesty, with 

5 Gouverneur Morris was born in 1752, He lost a leg because of 
an accident with a runaway carriage in 1780. No accident, as far 
as we know, injured his arm, at least permanently. 

''Madison was born in 1751. 



9^ READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

a remarkably sweet temper. He is easy and unreserved 
among his acquaintance, and has a most agreeable style of 
conversation. 

Mr. Chs. Cotesworth Pinckney is a Gentleman of Family 
and fortune in his own State. He has received the ad- 
vantage of a liberal education, and possesses a very ex- 
tensive degree of legal knowledge. When warm in a debate 
he sometimes speaks well, but he is generally considered an 
indifferent Orator. Mr. Pinckney was an Officer of high 
rank in the American Army, and served with great reputa- 
tion through the War. He is now about 40 years of age. 

Mr. Charles Pinckney is a young Gentleman of the most 
promising talents. He is, altho' 24 years of age,^ in 
possession of a very great variety of knowledge. Govern- 
ment, Law, History, and Phylosophy are his favorite 
studies, but he is intimately acquainted with every species 
of polite learning, and has a spirit of application and in- 
dustry beyond most Men. He speaks with great neatness 
and perspicuity, and treats every subject as fully, without 
running into prolixity, as it requires. He has been a Mem- 
ber of Congress, and served in that Body with ability and 
eclat. 

Mr. Baldwin is a Gentleman of superior abilities, and 
joins in a public debate with great art and eloquence. 
Having laid the foundation of a compleat classical educa- 
tion at Harvard College, he pursues every other study with 
ease. He is well acquainted with Books and Characters, 
and has an accommodating turn of mind, which enables 
him to gain the confidence of Men, and to understand them. 
He is a practicing Attorney in Georgia, and has been twice 
a member of Congress. Mr. Baldwin is about 38 years ^ 
of age. 

7 Baldwin was born in 1754. He was educated at Yale, not Har- 
vard. Charles Pinckney was born in 1758. 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 93 

Notes of Major William Pierce on the Federal Conven- 
tion of lySy, in the American Historical Review, 1897-8, 
Vol. Ill, pp. 325 if. 

Questions 

If you were writing an account of the Convention, what facts 
regarding its members would you think it safe to adopt from 
these notes? Which facts would you reject? How would you 
undertake to supply facts such as you would not trust Pierce for? 



XVIII 
THE CONSTITUTION 

It is difficult for us at this day to know just what the 
Constitution meant to the men of 1788. Not that the docu- 
ment is clumsily and awkwardly written — on the contrary, 
it is as clear as well chosen words and clever phrasing can 
make it, and perhaps as definite and precise as the condi- 
tions of the problem permitted; but it is short, its terms 
are general and not sharply descriptive in all particulars ; 
probably no document which outlined at length with great 
particularity the form of government and the methods of 
its work could have been framed by the men at Philadel- 
phia or been adopted by the States. Precise details would 
have given too much opportunity for differences of opinion. 
As the Constitution was general and broad in its terms, it 
furnished opportunity for growth and for adaptation to 
actual needs as they arose. The theory always has been 
that the Constitution is unvarying save as it is amended by 
formal process {See Const., Art. V) ; but the Constitution 
has grown in its meaning by constant interpretation and by 
the actual development of government under it. And, more 
than that, almost every phrase has been given meaning 
either by the courts, in cases they have decided, or by the 
practical action of the government. 

When we look upon the Constitution now, therefore, 
and when we read its clauses, we gather a definite mean- 



94 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

ing about many things that could have had no definite 
meaning to the men who adopted it. We see actual work- 
ing institutions like the presidency, courts, Congress, ad- 
ministrative officers ; we see the government as a real thing 
at work; we find that we know and take for granted the 
relations between the different departments. In reading 
the Constitution we must always remember that after it 
was first adopted the government had to be made a reality, 
that the government has grown tremendously, that there 
have been, all along the line, chances for differences of 
opinion as to just how much should be done, and, more- 
over and above all, that the forms, offices, activities of 
government, were taken on little by little. Any considera- 
tion of the Constitution requires that we should remember 
that it means to us more than it meant one hundred and 
twenty-five years ago. 

Some things were plainly provided for by the document 
as it came from the hands of its f ramers ; and to the men 
discussing it in 1788 there were things no one could fail 
to see. There was provision for a central government 
with wide powers and capable of being strong and effective. 
This government no longer like the old Congress need 
depend on State governments ^ for action ; it could pass 
its own laws and carry them into effect with its own of- 
ficers ; it could raise money for its own purpose ; and it 
could carry on negotiations with foreign powers, with as- 
surance that it was a government, a government that could 
raise troops and equip navies and do other things that 
great world governments were accustomed to do. Even 
those that believed that the States retained the right to secede 
or break up the Union — if such there were in 1789 — 

1 State legislatures were to choose senators and the right to vote 
even for the president was to be determined by State laws {See 
Const, Art. I, Sec. 3, Par. i and Art. I, Sec. 2, Par. i). But on the 
whole the governments of the States and of the United States 
work apart. 



THE REVOLUTION AXD THE CONSTITUTION 95 

could and would not deny that the intention of the Con- 
stitution was to make an effective government over men 
as men. 

It was plain, too, that the Constitution provided for 
dividing powers or for distributing them between the 
States or their governments, on the one hand, and the cen- 
tral government on the other. Certain powers were given 
to the national government and it was from the first sup- 
posed that this government had only the power granted.- 
The powers thus bestowed were intended to be those of a 
general character, those which experience and theory 
pointed to as the ones which, for the good of the whole, 
should be committed to one central authority, those, in 
other words, which, like the management of the post office, 
the making of treaties, the regulation of coins and coin- 
age, the conduct of war, could not wisely be left to the 
individual States. In speaking of a body like the United 
States in which there are numerous governments and in 
which there is one central authority with certain powers, 
we use the term '' federal state," a term distinguishing it 
from a body politic like France which we call a unitary 
state. The Constitution of the United States is notewor- 
thy because it did mark the establishment of this kind of 
state, what was called by the men of 1788 a " Confederated 
Republic." ^ 

2 This was made undeniably evident by the Tenth Amendment 
(See) which we must consider interpretative only and not a real 
addition of a new principle. See, also, the doctrine of implied 
powers discussed in McLaughlin, A Hist, of the Am. Nation, pp. 
205-6; MacDonald, Select Documents, pp. 83, 84, 87; No. XIX, post. 

3 I do not wish here to beg the question as to whether in 1788 or 
9 the men believed that the Constitution established only a closer 
relation between many States, each one retaining its ultimate right of 
withdrawing — the doctrine of State sovereignty (See McLaughlin's 
A Hist, of Am. Nation, pp. 299-300). But even with State sover- 
eignty, the central government* had the right to act on men rather 
than apply to governments ; not even the advocates of State sover- 
eignty, as they afterwards spoke, would deny that the United States 
was something more than an old fashioned alliance. And even if 



96 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

If one looks at the Constitution even hastily he will see 
that it is divided into distinct parts and that each on the 
whole treats of a particular line of subjects. The Pre- 
amble indicates the purpose in establishing the Constitu- 
tion, a purpose evidently based on the trying experiences 
of the old Confederation when the tie of union was only a 
" rope of sand " and when the " new roof," to use the 
expressive words of the day, was not yet set up to shelter 
the States and the people in their newly found liberties. 
Then come seven Articles. 

First is an article (Article I) dealing with the legislative 
department, providing for a House of Representatives and 
a Senate, the House to be made up of members chosen by 
the people in the various States, the Senate to consist of 
members chosen by the legislatures of the various States,* 
each State sending two senators. In this article we find 
the powers delegated to the central government, for though 
the powers are in so many words delegated to Congress it 
is a reasonable supposition that the other departments of 
government must have powers that naturally result ; the 
president, for example, would naturally have the right to 
execute the laws made by Congress in pursuance of the 
powers thus delegated. This Article also includes a state- 
ment of certain things that cannot be done {See Art. I, 
Sec. 9) and certain restrictions upon the States. 

The second article provides for a president and vice- 
president to be chosen by electors chosen in the States, a 
provision which soon caused difficulties in operation, espe- 
cially as the Constitution said that each elector should cast 
a ballot for two persons for president and that the one 
person having the highest number, if a majority, should be 

the question whether the United States was more than a mere 
body of States had to be tried out and settled by war, there can 
be no doubt, first, that it became a federal state in the course of time, 
second, that the government always acted with authority as pos- 
sessor of great political powers. 
^ Changed by Amendment XVII, which see. 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 97 

president, and the one receiving the next highest number 
should be vice-president. This brought in the Twelfth 
Amendment which was adopted in 1804. To the president 
as executive authority the Constitution gives the duty of 
seeing that the laws are carried out, and he is also given 
the power of dealing with ambassadors and representatives 
from foreign countries and likewise the very significant 
and, as it proved, arduous, task of appointing to office with 
the consent of the Senate. 

Article III deals with the courts ; it declares that there 
shall be one supreme court, but does not say how many 
judges there shall be or just what its duties shall be, save 
that in most cases it is to be a court of appeal only. Here 
we find, also, the general description of the jurisdiction of 
the judiciary, that is to say the kind of cases that can in 
general be brought before the federal courts as distin- 
guished from state courts. Some kinds of cases evidently 
could be brought before either the federal or the state 
courts, and such has always been the practice, for example 
controversies between citizens of different States. The 
general plan of the court system and principles defining the 
operation of the courts were left in large degree to Con- 
gress, and grew up partly by reason of legislation, partly 
by determinations and decisions of the courts themselves.^ 
It should especially be noticed that the Constitution does 
not in so many words give the power to the Supreme Court 
or any court to declare a law of Congress unconstitutional 
and hence void. That power, first plainly exercised in 
1803,^ was declared by the court to be within its power 
because the Constitution is a law ; it is the duty of courts 
to declare what the law is; and therefore any act contrary 
to the Constitution could not be law. 

The fourth article deals chiefly with relations between 
the States of the Union — the duty and obligation of ex- 

^See McLaughlin's A Hist, of Amer. Nation, pp. 203, 224-5. 
^ See ibid., pp. 224-5. 
8 



98 READINGS IN AAIERICAN HISTORY 

tradition, i.e., the surrender of fugitives from justice; the 
principle that persons held to service should not, by escap- 
ing into another State, become free ' — the so-called " fugi- 
tive slave clause ' ' ; the right of Congress to admit new 
States into the Union. 

In the fifth article we have a statement as to the method 
of amendment. Two methods are provided; but in the 
course of time only one has been used. Congress, by a 
two-thirds vote of both Houses, has proposed amendments 
to the States ; they are considered parts of the Constitution 
when ratified by three-fourths of the legislatures of the 
States. In this way, as we shall see, seventeen amend- 
ments have been adopted. 

The sixth article after declaring that the debts contracted 
under the old Confederation should be valid against the 
United States, announces that the Constitution, laws and 
treaties of the United States " shall be the supreme law of 
the land"; and that *' the judges in every State shall be 
bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any 
State to the contrary notwithstanding." This is an im- 
portant section because it means that any State law or 
constitution at variance with the Constitution, laws or 
treaties of the United States, cannot be legally held to be 
good and binding law even in the State courts presided 
over by State judges. This was a principle which, it was 
hoped, would hold the States and prevent their enforcing 
laws that violated the Constitution or the constitutionally 
made laws or treaties of the Union. The courts of the 
States were called on to disregard such State action. 

Finally in the seventh article it is declared that the rati- 
fication of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient 
for the establishment of the Constitution. It was sub- 
mitted to conventions in the States — not to the legislatures 

7 An act on this matter was passed by Congress in 1793. See, 
also, the great discussion in connection with the Compromise of 
1850, McLaughlin, A Hist, of the Am. Nation, pp. 344-8- 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION 99 

• — for final adoption, and was ratified by eleven conven- 
tions before the end of 1788. North Carolina and Rhode. 
Island did not ratify till after the new government went 
into operation. 

In the course of time seventeen amendments have been 
adopted. The first ten may almost be considered a part 
of the original Constitution because they were adopted 
soon after the creation of the government; they were in- 
tended to be in the nature of a bill of rights, announcing 
principles of liberty and placing explicit restrictions on the 
national government.^ The Eleventh Amendment, de- 
clared in force in 1798, defines more strictly the power of 
the federal courts, by declaring that the courts of the 
United States has no jurisdiction over suits brought against 
a State by citizens of a State or of a foreign state. The 
Twelfth (1804) makes a change in the method of electing 
the president. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth ^ 
were the products of the Civil War; and of these the Four- 
teenth, in its first section placing restrictions on the States, 
has become of great importance. When it declares that 
no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property 
without due process of law or be denied the equal pro- 
tection of the laws, it practically gives to the federal courts 
the right of declaring void an act of a State legislature 
which in the opinion of the courts violates this provision ; 
thus the Federal Supreme Court may refuse to recognize 
as valid an act which appears to be contrary to funda- 
mental principles of justice; and this power has been of 
great moment in recent years when the States have passed 
acts concerning the charges and duties of corporations ; for 
the courts have held that, under this clause of the Consti- 
tution, corporations are persons ; they cannot be arbitrarily 

^See reference to bill of rights of Virginia in McLaughlin's A 
Hist, of the Am. Nation, p. 162; see also, p. 196. What is the 
bill of rights in your own State constitution? 

^See McLaughlin's A Hist, of the Am. Nation, pp. 426, 473, 438- 
441, 446. 



100 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

deprived of property or made to accept such low prices for 
services as to destroy the value of their property. 

The last two amendments are products of very modern 
conditions, the Sixteenth changing the old rule about direct 
taxes/** and the Seventeenth providing for the popular 
election of senators. 

The plan of the Constitution, its general idea, as we have 
already said, was to leave the great mass of powers with 
the States and to turn over to the general government only 
specific powers. To the general or central government 
went indeed authority to make laws on very important 
subjects; its powers are more striking, more august one 
might say; and yet as a rule the relations between man 
and man were left to State law and State authority. The 
vast number of laws that you and I in our daily life come 
into contact with, which we know about and which deeply 
affect our well-being, are either State laws or acts and 
ordinances passed by inferior bodies subordinate to the 
State, like city councils. To the States were left by the 
Constitution, and are still left, such great powers and 
political duties as the power to provide for education, to 
control the subjects of marriage and divorce, to preserve 
the peace, to punish criminals, to provide for the title to 
property and the laws whereby one may buy and sell, to 
make corporations, to establish cities and towns and give 
them rights of local self-government. If one is daily more 
and more impressed by the activities and the responsi- 
bilities of the government at Washington, the government 
which can make war and peace and pass tariff laws — 
if the government has year by year extended and widened 
its functions and is more and more acting broadly for pub- 
lic welfare, still the governments of the States and the 
local governments in the States are the ones we see; 
their laws are the ones we are likely most immediately to 

10 See Const., Art. I, Sec. 2, Par. 3, and Art. I, Sec. 9, Par. 4 ; Mc- 
Laughlin, ibid., p. 508. 



THE REVOLUTION AND THE CONSTITUTION loi 

feel. It is still true that one might possibly pass his life- 
time in America without seeing or knowing a United States 
officer save a letter carrier or a postmaster. 

A. C. McLaughlin. 

Questions 

How has the Constitution been adapted without amendment to 
the changing needs of the Nation? Explain in your own words 
the sense in which the Constitution of the United States means 
more now than it did when it was framed? In what important 
particular did the government ordained by the Constitution differ 
from the government of the Confederation? What did the men 
of 1788 sometimes call the system established by the Constitution? 
Explain the difference between a federal and a unitary state. In 
general what pawers did the Constitution assign the Federal Govern- 
ment? What is the function of the Preamble of the Constitution? 
Look up the text of the Preamble. (In answering the succeeding 
questions the student should compare what is said of each of the 
seven articles with the corresponding text of the Constitution.) 
With what does Article I of the Constitution deal? How are the 
qualifications entitling men to vote for member of the House of 
Representatives determined? How were senators to be elected? 
How are they elected now? Can you see in this article the orig- 
inal reason for taking the United States Census? How often is the 
Census taken ? What is meant by impeachment ? What functions 
have the Senate and the House of Representatives in case of an 
impeachment? For what may a civil officer be impeached? Has 
the President of the United States ever been impeached? {See 
A History of the Am. Nation, p. 441.) How many votes are neces- 
sary to carry a measure over the president's veto? Can you see any 
way in which a law can go into effect without the president's signa- 
ture? Can you think of any way in which the president can pre- 
vent a bill from becoming law without vetoing it? What is a 
pocket veto? What powers does Article I confer on Congress? 
What additional powers have been deduced from the last paragraph 
of Section 8? {See Selection 19.) What powers does the Article 
withhold from Congress? What powers does it withhold from the 
States? With what does Article II deal? How did the Constitu- 
tion originally provide >for the election of the president and vice- 
president? How are these officers elected at the present time? 
How has Congress exercised the power granted it in the sixth para- 
graph of Article II, Section i ? {See McLaughlin's, A Hist, of the 
Am. Nation, p. 494.) What powers does the Constitution assign 
the president? With what does Article III deal? Does the Con- 



102 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

stitution say exactly what courts the federal government shall 
have? Does the Constitution give the Supreme Court the power 
to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional? On what grounds 
did the Supreme Court claim this power? How does the Consti- 
tution define treason? Notice the decision in the case of Aaron 
Burr. (McLaughlin's A Hist, of the Am. Nation, p. 229.) With 
what does Article IV deal? How may new States be admitted 
to the Union? Has Congress ever admitted States into the Union 
which before their admission were not American territory? What 
two methods of amending the Constitution are provided in Article 
V? In practice which method has been used? In what one point 
is the Constitution now unamendable except by the unanimous as- 
sent of the States? What is the significance of the declaration that 
the Constitution and laws and treaties of the United States shall 
be the supreme law of the land? What duty did the Constitution 
assign in this connection to the State courts? Name the powers 
withheld from the Federal Government in the first ten amendments? 
What term is applied to these amendments? What was the origin 
of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments? What 
sorts of questions have come before the courts under the Four- 
teenth Amendment? Notice not only that rights of corporations 
have been considered, but also the right of the States to regulate 
hours of employment in industries, and other matters of that 
kind. Is a person deprived of his liberty unjustly when he is for- 
bidden by law to employ laborers for more than a certain number of 
hours a day? In general what principle governs the division of 
powers between the Federal and State governments? 



PART III 

THE NEW GOVERNMENT 
XIX 

HAMILTON ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF 
THE CONSTITUTION 

February 15, 1791, Jefferson submitted to Washington a 
paper arguing that the Act to establish a National Bank was 
unconstitutional and therefore should be vetoed. He reached 
this conclusion by means of a narrow, strict construction of 
the clauses of the Constitution defining the powers of Congress. 
Hamilton, on February 23, presented to Washington a paper in 
answer to Jeft'erson, an extract from which is here given. It 
is the first and in many respects the ablest short defense of the 
liberal construction of the Constitution that has in general 
characterized our constitutional history. It must be remem- 
bered that, in theory, Congress has only the power granted by 
the Constitution {See Amendment X) ; inasmuch as the powers 
granted are commonly stated in general terms, there naturally 
arose questions as to the extent of the power granted. 

The first of these arguments ^ is, that the foundation of 
the Constitution is laid on this ground : '' That all powers 
not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor 
prohibited to it by the States, are reserved for the States, 
or to the people." Whence it is meant to be inferred, that 
Congress can in no case exercise any power not included in 
those enumerated in the Constitution. And it is affirmed, 
that the power of erecting a corporation is not included in 
any of the enumerated powers. 

1 Against the constitutionality of the Bank. 

103 



104 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

The main proposition here laid down, in its true signifi- 
cation is not to be questioned. . . . But how much is dele- 
gated in each case, is a question of fact, to be made out by 
fair reasoning and construction upon the particular pro- 
visions of the Constitution, taking as guides the general 
principles and general ends of governments. 

It is not denied that there are implied as well as express 
powers, and that the former are as effectually delegated as 
the latter. And for the sake of accuracy it shall be men- 
tioned that there is another class of powers, which may be 
properly denominated resulting pozvers. It will not be 
doubted that, if the United States should make a conquest 
of any of the territories of its neighbors, they would pos- 
sess sovereign jurisdiction over the conquered territory. 
This would be rather a result, from the whole mass of the 
powers of the government and from the nature of political 
society, than a consequence of either of the powers specially 
enumerated. . . . 

To return : — It is conceded that implied powers are to 
be considered as delegated equally with express ones. 
Then it follows that, as a power of erecting a corporation 
may as well be implied as any other thing, it may as well 
be employed as an instrument or mean of carrying into 
execution any of the specified powers, as any other instru- 
ment or mean whatever. The only question must be, in 
this as in every other case, whether the mean to be em- 
ployed, or in this instance the corporation to be erected, 
has a natural relation to any of the acknowledged objects 
or lawful ends of the government. Thus a corporation 
may not be erected by Congress for superintending the 
police of the city of Philadelphia, because they are not 
authorized to regulate the police of that city. But one may 
be erected in relation to the collection of taxes, or to the 
trade with foreign countries, or to the trade between the 
States, or with the Indian tribes ; because it is the province 
of the federal government to regulate those objects, and 
because it is incident to a general sovereign or legislative 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 105 

power to regulate a thing, to employ all the means which 
relate to its regulation to the best and greatest advan- 
tage. • . • 

Through this mode of reasoning respecting the right of 
employing all the means requisite to the execution of the 
specified powers of the government, it is objected that none 
but necessary and proper means are to be employed ; and 
the Secretary of State - maintains, that no means are to be 
considered as necessary but those without which the grant 
of the power would be nugatory. Nay, so far does he go 
in his restrictive interpretation of the zi'ord, as even to 
make the case of necessity which shall warrant the con- 
stitutional exercise of the power to depend on casual and 
temporary circumstances ; an idea which alone refutes the 
construction. The expediency of exercising a particular 
power, at a particular time, must, indeed, depend on cir- 
cumstances ; but the constitutional right of exercising it 
must be uniform and invariable, the same to-day as to-mor- 
row. . . .^ 

It is essential to the being of the national government, 
that so erroneous a conception of the meaning of the word 
necessary should be exploded. 

It is certain, that neither the grammatical nor popular 
sense of the term requires that construction. According 
to both, necessary often means no more than needful, 
requisite, incidental, useful, or conducive to. It is a com- 
mon mode of expression to say that it is necessary for a 
government or a person to do this or that thing, when noth- 
ing more is intended or understood, than that the interests 

2 Jefferson. 

3 This argument turns on the interpretation of Article I, Section 
8 of the Constitution. It empowers Congress, " To make all Laws 
which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the 
foregoing Powers and all other Powers, vested by this Constitution 
in the Government of the United States or any Department or Of- 
ficer thereof." 



lo6 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

of the government or person require, or will be promoted 
by, the doing of this or that thing. The imagination can 
be at no loss for exemplifications of the use of the word 
in this sense. And it is the true one in which it is to be 
understood as used in the Constitution. The whole turn 
of the clause containing it indicates that it was the intent 
of the Convention, by that clause, to give a liberal latitude 
to the exercise of the specified powers. The expressions 
have peculiar comprehensiveness. They are *' to make all 
lazus necessary and proper for carrying into execution the 
foregoing ponders, and all other powers vested by the Con- 
stitution in the government of the United States, or in any 
department or oMcer thereof." 

To understand the word as the Secretary of State does, 
would be to depart from its obvious and popular sense, and 
to give it a restrictive operation, an idea never before en- 
tertained. It would be to give it the same force as if the 
word absolutely or indispensably had been prefixed to it. 

Such a construction would beget endless uncertainty and 
embarrassment. The cases must be palpable and extreme, 
in which it could be pronounced, with certainty, that a 
measure was absolutely necessary, or one without which 
the exercise of a given power would be nugatory. There 
are few measures of any government which would stand 
so severe a test. To insist upon it, would be to make the 
criterion of the exercise of any implied power a case of 
extreme necessity; which is rather a rule to justify the 
overleaping of the bounds of constitutional authority, than 
to govern the ordinary exercise of it. . . . 

The degree in which a measure is necessary, can never 
be a test of the legal right to adopt it ; that must be a mat- 
ter of opinion, and can only be a test of expediency. The 
relation between the measure and the end; between the na- 
ture of the mean employed towards the execution of a 
power, and the object of that power, must be the criterion 
of constitutionality, not the more or less of necessity or 
utility. . . . 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 107 

It leaves, therefore, a criterion of what is constitutional, 
and of what is not so. This criterion is the end, to which 
the measure relates as a mean. If the end be clearly com- 
prehended within any of the specified powers, and if the 
measure have an obvious relation to that end, and is not 
forbidden by any particular provision of the Constitution, 
it may safely be deemed to come within the compass of 
the national authority. 

Works of Hamilton, J. C. Hamilton, Editor, Vol. IV, pp. 
106, fif. New York, 1851. 

Questions 

How did Hamilton meet the argument that the Constitution gave 
Congress no power to establish a corporation? Did Hamilton think 
that the right of Congress to erect a corporation depended on an 
express grant in the Constitution of that power for a specific pur- 
pose, or on the constitutionality of the objects for which the cor- 
poration was created? H the ends or purposes of an act are con- 
stitutional the means adapted to secure those ends are constitutional, 
unless in some way explicitly or impliedly prohibited. Thus the 
doctrine of implied powers might be called the doctrine of im- 
plied means. With a view to what objects did he think that Con- 
gress had the implied power of erecting a corporation? What in- 
terpretation did Jefferson wish to give to the word "necessary''? 
What criticism did Hamilton pass on this interpretation of the 
word? Did he think that the question of the constitutionality of 
any expedient was to be determined by the degree of necessity, or 
by the constitutionality of the end to which the expedient was in- 
tended to attain? 

XX 

JEFFERSONIAN DEMOCRACY 

Jefiferson's inaugural of 1801 sums up bis political creed. 
The circumstances under which it was delivered should be re- 
membered. Jefferson then and ever afterwards regarded the 
political overturn by which the Republicans came into power 
in 1801 as a>t^volu-t4on whose importance in our history was 
obscured by its peaceful character and by its progress in ac- 
cord with constitutional forms. He believed that the leaders 



Io8 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

of the Federalist party had hoped to establish, if not a mon- 
archy, at least a central government unbounded by the Con- 
stitution, and depending in a comparatively slight manner on 
the wishes of the masses of the people. The people had once 
for all set their faces against Federalism. It was left for Jeffer- 
son to draw into the ranks of the Republican party the great 
mass of Federalists who were untainted by the " monarchical " 
designs of their leaders and to leave Hamilton and his fellows 
without support, to be the scorn of their countrymen, who no 
longer need fear their designs. With a view to this end of 
dismembering the Federalist party, it would be Jefferson's policy 
by moderation to refute those who had predicted that his ad- 
ministration would bring in all the blasphemies, immoralities, 
and disorders of the French Revolution. For the rest, it must 
be his policy to adhere to the limitations that the Constitution 
placed on the Federal Government and to democratic principles, 
to foster the State governments as more immediately under the 
control of the people, and to govern as little as possible. 

Friends and Fellow Citizens: Called tipon to under- 
take the duties of the first executive office of our country, 
I avail myself of the presence of that portion of my fellow- 
citizens which is here assembled, to express my grateful 
thanks for the favor with which they have been pleased to 
look toward me, to declare a sincere consciousness that the 
task is above my talents, and that I approach it with those 
anxious and awful presentiments which the greatness of 
the charge and the weakness of my powers so justly in- 
spire. A rising nation, spread over a wide and fruitful 
land, traversing all the seas with the rich productions of 
their industry, engaged in commerce with nations who feel 
power and forget right, advancing rapidly to destinies be- 
yond the reach of mortal eye — when I contemplate these 
transcendent objects, and see the honor, the happiness, and 
the hopes of this beloved country committed to the aus- 
pices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and 
humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking. 
Utterly, indeed, should I despair, did not the presence of 
many whom I here see remind me, that, in the other high 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 109 

authorities provided by our Constitution, I shall find re- 
sources of wisdom, of virtue, and of zeal, on which to rely 
under all difficulties. To you, then, gentlemen, who are 
charged with the sovereign functions of legislation, and to 
those associated with you, I look with encouragement for 
that guidance and support which may enable us to steer 
with safety the vessel in which we are all embarked amidst 
the conflicting elements of a troubled world. 

During the contest of opinion through which we have 
passed, the animation of discussions and of exertions has 
sometimes w^orn an aspect which might impose on strangers 
unused to think freely and to speak and write what they 
think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, 
announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all 
will of course arrange themselves under the will of the 
law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. 
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though 
the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will 
to be rightful must be reasonable ; that the minority possess 
their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to 
violate would be oppression. Let us then, fellow-citizens, 
unite with one heart and one mind ; let us restore to social 
intercourse that harmony and affection without which lib- 
erty, and even life itself, are but dreary things. And let 
us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious 
intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, 
we have yet gained little, if we countenance a political in- 
tolerance, as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter 
and bloody persecutions. During the throes and convul- 
sions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms of 
infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his 
long lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of 
the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore ; 
that this should be more felt and feared by some and less 
by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of 
safety ; but every difference of opinion is not a difference 
of principle. We have called by different names brethren 



no READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

of the same principle. We are all republicans, we are all 
federalists. If there be any among us who would wish 
to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let 
them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with 
which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is 
left free to combat it. I know, indeed, that some honest 
men fear that a republican government cannot be strong, 
that this government is not strong enough. But would the 
honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, 
abandon a government which has so far kept us free and 
firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear that this govern- 
ment, the world's best hope, may by possibility want energy 
to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the 
contrary, the strongest government on earth. I believe it 
the only one where every man at the call of the law would 
fly to the standard of the law and would meet invasions 
of the public order as his own personal concern. Some- 
times it is said that man cannot be trusted with the gov- 
ernment of himself. Can he then be trusted with the 
government of others? Or have we found angels, in the 
form of kings, to govern him? Let history answer this 
question. 

Let us then with courage and confidence pursue our own 
federal and republican principles, our attachment to union 
and representative government. Kindly separated by na- 
ture and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of 
one-quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the 
degradations of the others ; possessing a chosen country 
with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth 
and thousandth generation ; entertaining a due sense of our 
equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisi- 
tions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from 
our fellow-citizens resulting not from birth but from our 
actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign 
religion, professed indeed and practiced in various forms, 
yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, 
gratitude, and the love of man ; acknowledging and ador- 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT III 

ing an overruling providence, which by all Its dispensations 
proves that It delights In the happiness of man here and his 
greater happiness hereafter — with all these blessings, what 
more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous 
people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizens, a wise and 
frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring 
one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate 
their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall 
not take from the mouth of labor the bread It has earned. 
This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary 
to close the circle of our felicities. 

About to enter, fellow-citizens, on the exercise of duties 
which comprehend everything dear and valuable to you, it 
is proper you should understand what I deem the essential 
principles of our government, and consequently those which 
ought to shape its administration. I will compress them 
within the narrowest compass they will bear, stating the 
general principle but not all its limitations. — Equal and 
exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, 
religious or political : — peace, commerce, and honest friend- 
ship with all nations, entangling alliances with none : — 
the support of the State governments In all their rights, as 
the most competent administrations for our domestic con- 
cerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tend- 
encies : — the preservation of the general government in 
its w^hole constitutional vigor, as the sheet ancho.r of our 
peace at home, and safety abroad: — a jealous care of the 
right of election by the people, a mild and safe corrective 
of abuses which are lopped by the sword of revolution 
where peaceable remedies are unprovided : — absolute 
acquiescence In the decisions of the majority, the vital prin- 
ciple of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, 
the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism: — a 
well disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for 
the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them : — 
the supremacy of the civil over the military authority : — 
economy in the public expense, that labor may be lightly 



112 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

burthened : — the honest payment of our debts and sacred 
preservation of the pubHc faith : — encouragement of 
agriculture and of commerce as its handmaid: — the dif- 
fusion of information and arraignment of all abuses at the 
bar of the public reason : — freedom of religion ; freedom 
of the press ; and freedom of person under the protection 
of the Habeas Corpus, and trial by juries impartially se- 
lected. These principles form the bright constellation 
which has gone before us, and guided our steps through 
the age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of 
our sages, and blood of our heroes have been devoted to 
their attainment. They should be the creed of our politi- 
cal faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone by 
which to try the services of those we trust ; and should we 
wander from them in moments of error or alarm, let us 
hasten to retrace our steps and to regain the road which 
alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety. 

I repair then, fellow-citizens, to the post you have as- 
signed me. With experience enough in subordinate offices 
to have seen the difficulties of this the greatest of all, I 
have learnt to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of 
imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputa- 
tion, and the favor which bring him into it. Without pre- 
tensions to that high confidence you reposed in our first 
and greatest revolutionary character, whose preeminent 
services had entitled him to the first place in his country's 
love and destined for him the fairest page in the volume 
of faithful history, I ask so much confidence only as may 
give firmness and effect to the legal administration of your 
affairs. I shall often go wrong through defect of judg- 
ment. When right, I shall often be thought wrong by 
those whose positions will not command a view of the 
whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own errors, 
which will never be intentional, and your support against 
the errors of others, who may condemn what they would 
not if seen in all its parts. The approbation implied by 
your suffrage is a great consolation to me for the past ; and 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 1 13 

my future solicitude will be to retain the good opinion of 
those who have bestowed it in advance, to conciliate that 
of others by doing them all the good in my power, and 
to be instrumental to the happiness and freedom of 
all. 

Relying then on the patronage of your good will, I ad- 
vance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it 
whenever you become sensible how much better choice it 
is in your power to make. And may that Infinite Power 
which rules the destinies of the universe lead our councils 
to what is best, and give them a favorable issue for your 
peace and prosperity. 

Journal of the Senate, 6th Congress, 2d Session, pp. 141- 
147. March 4, 1801. 

Questions 

What did Jefferson consider to be the real strength of the Gov- 
ernment of the United States? Why was a Repubhcan government 
most sure to be stable? What material conditions favorable to its 
peace and happiness did the United States enjoy? Describe the 
kind of government that Jefferson pronounced necessary to com- 
plete this happiness. What did Jefferson indicate as his foreign 
policy? What did he consider to be the value in the American 
constitutional system of the State governments? Of popular elec- 
tions? What further principles of government and of liberty did 
he include in his political programme? Notice how the address is 
filled with a sense of the worth of free popular government, and 
especially with his doctrine of individualism, that is to say, the doc- 
trine that each man should be unhampered and left alone to work 
out his own destiny. 



XXI 

HOW THE EMBARGO WAS ENFORCED AND 
EVADED 

President Jefferson on December 18, 1807, recommended to 
Congress the passage of an embargo prohibiting the sailing of 
American ships from our ports. He took this resolution immedi- 
ately on receiving news of official acts of the English and French 
9 



114 READINGS IN AAIERICAN HISTORY 

governments that boded ill for our commerce — orders in coun- 
cil and Napoleon's Decrees. The Senate on the same day passed 
an embargo bill. It then was passed by the House, and was 
signed, Tuesday, December 22, 1807. The selection illustrates 
the expedition with which the hastily passed measure was put 
in force, as well as the later efforts to evade and to enforce it. 
Although the Embargo was intended to save American shipping 
from danger of capture, and American seamen from impress- 
ment as well as to punish the European States by cutting off 
American supplies, the profits of trade were so great that 
ship owners were anxious to take their chances. This explains 
the unpopularity of the Embargo with the very classes it was 
designed to protect. The further fact that it cut off exports 
into Canada by land made it unpopular with the farmers of the 
North. With a view to its enforcement various irritating or- 
ders were issued that aroused popular discontent. 

The embargo had not been many minutes in force when 
express riders were galloping out of Washington and rid- 
ing posthaste toward Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New 
York, with orders from Gallatin to the collectors. Speed 
was most necessary, and so well did the messengers perform 
their task that at five o'clock on Friday morning one of them 
crossed the ferry from Paulus Hook and roused the Col- 
lector of the port of New York from his slumbers. The 
nearest Republican printer was sought, and by seven o'clock 
copies of the law in the form of handbills were distributed 
about the streets. Then followed a scene which to men 
not engaged in commerce was comical. On a sudden the 
streets were full of merchants, ship owners, ship captains, 
supercargoes, and sailors hurrying toward the water front. 
Astonished at this unusual commotion, men of all sorts fol- 
lowed, and by eight o'clock the wharves were crowded with 
spectators, cheering the little fleet of half-laden ships which, 
with all sail spread, was beating down the harbor. None 
of them had clearances. Many were half-manned. Few 
had more than part of a cargo. One which had just come 
in, rather than be embargoed, went off without breaking 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 115 

bulk. At the sight of the headings of the handbills, the 
captains made crews of the first seamen they met, and, with 
a few hurried instructions from the owners, pushed into 
the stream. That the Collector was slack is not unlikely, 
for it was ten o'clock before his boats were in pur- 
suit. 

The act did not apply to American vessels sailing from 
port to port along the coast of the United States; nor to 
foreign merchantmen in ballast ; ^ nor to foreign armed 
vessels in commission; but it absolutely forbade registered 
or sea-letter vessels to leave the ports of the United States 
for those of any foreign power. Such vessels might, how- 
ever, engage in the coasting trade. If they did, bonds 
equal to twice the value of ship and cargo must be given 
as security that the cargo would really be landed in the 
United States. 

On licensed ships engaged in the coasting trade the em- 
bargo law laid no restraint. They were still at liberty to 
load and sail. No custom-house officers watched them day 
and night. No inspection was made of their cargoes. No 
bond was required as surety that the cargo should even be 
landed in the United States. The advantages to which this 
might be turned were quickly seen. Indeed, the law was 
scarcely known when captains and owners of ships em- 
ployed in the foreign trade were hurrying to the custom- 
house to give up their ship registers and take out licenses 
to trade along the coast. A cargo of provisions would 
then he hurried on board, all sail spread for Eastport or 
New Orleans, and, under pretense of being blown off the 
coast, the captain would make for Halifax, St. Kitts,^ or 
Basse Terre. And for this offense no punishment what- 
ever was provided. . . . 

1 Ships without cargo. 

2 St. Kitts or St. Christopher, an island of the Leeward Antilles be- 
longing to Great Britain. Basseterre is the capital of the Island of 
Guadeloupe in the same group. At this time it belonged to 
France. 



Il6 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Long ^ before this time, however, the embargo began to 
be felt, and felt seriously. In the large shipping towns 
business of every kind fell off, and soon utterly ceased. 
The ropewalks were deserted. The sail-makers were idle. 
The shipwrights and the draymen had scarcely anything to 
do. Pitch and tar, hemp and flour, bacon, salt fish, and 
flaxseed became drugs upon the shippers' hands. But the 
greatest sufferers of all were the sailors. In Boston one 
hundred of them bearing a flag went in procession to the 
Government house demanding work or bread. The Gov- 
ernor told them he could do nothing for them, and they 
went off. ... In Philadelphia a band of seamen with a 
flag paraded the streets, drew up before the State House, 
and sent a committee in to see the Mayor. The Mayor 
assured them he had no power to grant any relief, told them 
such conduct was highly improper, and ordered the flag 
put away. When this was done he went out, spoke a few 
words, and advised them to seek help from the Chamber of 
Commerce, which immediately took up the consideration 
of the best way to employ the idle sailors, and soon had 
them at work making canvas, rope, coarse mats, oakum, 
gaskets, and points. . . . 

" The act ought," said one writer, " to be called the 
* Dambargo.' " " Our President," said another, " delights 
in the measure because the name hides so well his secret 
wishes. Read it backward, and you have the phrase, * O- 
grab-me.' Divide it into syllables and read backwards, and 
you have the Jeffersonian injunction, ' Go bar 'em.' 
Transpose the seven letters of the word, and you have what 
the embargo will soon produce, ' mob-rage.' " 

The squibs written on the embargo were countless, and, 
bad as they were, a few specimens deserve to be given: 

Why is the embargo like sickness? 
Because it weakens us. 

3 Before the middle of 1808. 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 1 17 

Why is it like a whirlwind? 

Because we can't tell certainly where it came from or where 
it is going; it knocks some down, breaks others, and turns 
everything topsy-turvy. 

Why is it like hydrophobia? 

Because it makes us dread the water. 

If you spell it backward what does it say? 
O grab me ! 

By that time another prediction of the Federalists began 
to be fulfilled. The farmers were feeling the embargo. 
In expectation of a ready market and good prices, they 
had mortgaged their old land to buy new, and had thus 
been enabled to raise greater crops of wheat and grain 
than ever before. In Pennsylvania, in the valleys of the 
Mohawk and the Hudson, in Vermont, every mill had, until 
the streams were frozen over, been grinding day and night. 
In some places the farmers had been holding back their 
flour in hopes that the supply near the great cities would 
be quickly shipped and the price put up. In others they 
were waiting for snow to make transportation more easy. 
But ere the high prices and the snow came the ports were 
closed, the demand for flour stopped, and the farmers found 
themselves in possession of a staple for which they could 
not get the cost of sowing, reaping, and grinding. If they 
were honest men, their lot was indeed a hard one. If they 
chose to be dishonest, two courses lay before them. They 
might, if living near the boundary, turn smugglers, and 
hurry their flour over the line to British territory. They 
might sell it to someone who, tempted by the great profits 
to be made, was ready to take the risks they would not. 
Both ways were used, and by the middle of February the 
embargo was daily broken in a dozen bold, daring, and in- 
genious ways. The law applied to registered, sea-letter, 
and licensed ships. But boats of five tons burden and less 



Il8 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

were not required to register, or take out sea-letters, or 
licenses to trade. On such, therefore, the embargo had 
no effect, and they were at once used to evade it. 

Along the Atlantic border the flour was sent to the near- 
est available port, hurried into a schooner or a snow, bonds 
were given not to land it out of the United States, and all 
sail was spread. If the food was intended for the West 
Indies, the vessel ran down the coast to St. Mary's, a little 
hamlet in southern Georgia on the American side of St. 
Mary's river, then part of the boundary line between the 
United States and the possessions of Spain. There the 
barrels were put on board of boats of less than five tons 
and carried over the river, or to a sloop waiting off the 
coast for a cargo for Bermuda or St. Kitts. When the 
provisions were intended for Great Britain the run was up 
the coast to Eastport, and then over the Passamaquoddy in 
small boats, and so to the Halifax market. 

On the Canadian border the smuggling was bolder and 
more impudent still. In Vermont a favorite way was to 
load a dozen sleds or wagons and drive toward Canada. 
A hill with steep slopes and close to the boundary line 
would be selected and a rude hut put up on the summit. 
The hut must be so made that when a stone was pulled 
from the foundation the floor would fall, the sides topple 
over, and the contents of the structure be thrown on English 
ground. When thus built, the sleds would be unloaded, the 
potash and flour, the pork, and the lumber put in, the stone 
removed, and the barrels sent roiling into Canada. Once 
there, they became English property and were quickly 
carried off. . . . 

The products of the Champlain region were lumber, pot- 
ash, pork, and brandy. For these a ready market had al- 
ways been found at Albany and at the thriving towns of Fort 
Edward and Whitehall. But the embargo had cut off the 
trade, and the people, to get a living, turned toward Canada. 
Out of the lumber they made rafts, on the rafts they stacked 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT II9 

their potash, pork, and liquor, spread sails, built rude 
shelters, and, with the help of the south wind, floated the 
whole down the lake and over the line into Canada. Wind- 
mill Bay was a favorite place of shipment. The shores 
were said to be covered with produce. Repeatedly as many 
as twenty-five rafts went out, favored by the darkness and 
a strong south wind. Some militia, indeed, were sent from 
New York and Vermont to stop wagons found travelling the 
old road to Canada and to cut off rafts near the line; but 
they did little. One dark night in May a garrison seized 
a sloop with one hundred and fifty barrels of ashes and 
ninety more of pork ; but the next night a bateau with 
twenty-five barrels passed the fort unharmed. Sometimes 
a revenue cutter would chase a smuggler up the Onion River 
and exchange shots, or, as on one occasion, have a pitched 
battle. Sometimes a sharp encounter would be had with 
raftsmen, which generally resulted In the defeat of the 
militia. If a raft was captured, the captors were almost 
sure to be surprised and the raft cut out a few nights later. 
At Alburg, on Misslsque Bay, the garrison were deliberately 
attacked, captured, and a dozen barrels of potash carried 
off. Another night forty men, armed and painted as In- 
dians, surrounded some troops near the boundary and 
frightened them into a profound sleep while a raft with 
thirty sails and measuring ten acres In surface floated slowly 
by Into Canadian waters. 

At Oswego, two lake craft having been refused clearances 
for Sackett's Harbor, the captains went off without clearing. 
The Collector gave chase In a revenue cutter ; but, finding 
the crews armed and ready to fight, he suffered them to go 
on. This so enraged the Republicans that forty men of 
Marcellus volunteered to march to Oswego and enforce 
the embargo, while the Governor of the State begged the 
President to proclaim Oswego In a state of insurrection. 

At Sackett's Harbor an affair took place which is a good 
example of what was constantly happening along the 
lake border. One day in September two boats loaded 



120 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

with ashes came down the Big Sandy Creek. As their 
owners noticed troops at the mouth of the creek, the hoats 
were quickly put about ; but they had been seen, and were 
followed the next day by the soldiers, who found the boats 
sunk opposite the house of a Captain Fairtield. Landing, 
they saw the masts, sails, and oars scattered about, the 
ashes stored in the house, and, hard by, a swivel gun. The 
smugglers meanwhile were busy cutting down trees and 
throwing them into the creek to hinder the return of the 
troops by water. Learning this, the officer in command 
broke into the house and made a hasty retreat with the 
potash and the swivel. Captain Fairfield was not in 
the county. But his wife promptly complained to the near- 
est magistrate, who issued a process in civil action. The 
constable, being afraid to serve it, gathered a posse of thirty 
men and started with them for the lake shore. There he 
formed a line and called on the troops to surrender or 
fight. They chose to fight, charged the posse, scattered 
it, and took ten prisoners. Not long after, the people of 
Ellisburg were again thrown into alanii by the appearance 
of the troops, who came, they said, to take the magistrate 
who issued the process. This magistrate was Judge 
Sackett, a man well known in those parts, and the founder 
of the town which still bears his name. But he was not 
to be taken, and, having found two citizens to make charges 
of felony, he issued another warrant and again gave it 
to the constable to serve. This time the hue and cry was 
raised, and several hundred men were soon gathered in 
Ellisburg. To them the constable read the law of hue and 
cry and the law for arming, and bade them meet armed at 
sunrise next morning. Eighty came, but the constable, 
not being sure that he could command armed men until 
he had himself been opposed by arms, dismissed them. 
Determined not to be deprived of their vengeance, the 
Ellisburgers now sent out a call to the people of Jeft'erson 
County to meet in their turn and take into consideration 
the legal way of seizing certain felons who had bound and 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 121 

carried off ten citizens while attending to an affair of the 
law. The meeting was duly held, and some strong resolu- 
tions on the subject drawn up. 

Violence, insolence, and law-breaking were now fre- 
quent along the whole border. Five open boats, full of 
potash, attempted to make the run from Fort Niagara to 
Canada, and, despite the troops and the Collector, three 
succeeded. On Salmon river, in Oneida County, the crew 
of a revenue cutter behaved so insolently that the people 
rose, seized them, and put them into the jail. At Lewis- 
ton twenty men came over from Canada and carried off a 
quantity of flour by force. They were believed to have 
gone to Canada for that very purpose. A ship showing 
no name and carrying no papers was taken off Squam 
Bay and sent into Charlestown. Those who pretended to 
know, said she hailed from Newburyport. There the em- 
bargo was most hated, and there the shippers and seamen 
were most active in evading it. On one occasion a sloop 
full of provisions made her escape from the town. Some 
officers who attempted to stop her were beaten by the crowd 
on the wharf and fired at by the sailors on the vessel. 
Nor was she taken till a cutter armed with troops had 
chased her for ten hours. On another day nine ships 
hoisted sail and defiantly started out. Again, a schooner 
laden with fish put out to sea. A revenue cutter brought 
her back ; but the people again rose, and were with diffi- 
culty prevented from destroying the cutter at the wharf. 

J. B. McMaster : History of the People of the United 
States, Vol. Ill, pp. 279-307, passim. D. Appleton and 
Co., New York, 1892. 

Questions 

How long did it take for the news of the Embargo to travel from 
Washington to New York? Describe the attempt of the ships to 
get away before the act was put into effect. How was it possible 
for ships in the coasting trade to evade the Embargo? What ad- 
vantage was taken of this? What was the effect of the Embargo 
on seamen? What means were devised for their relief? How did 



122 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

the Embargo deprive the farmers of the North of a market? De- 
scribe the means of smuggHng goods into the West Indies and 
Canada by sea. How were goods smuggled into Canada from Ver- 
mont? From New York by way of Lake Champlain? By way of 
Lake Ontario? Across the Niagara river? 



XXII 
THE CAUCUS OF 1824 

The framers of the Constitution expected that the electors 
would be perfectly free in their choice of president and vice- 
president; but with the rise of political parties such freedom 
could scarcely be possible. The leaders of the party, anxious 
to secure every electoral vote, naturally, by one means or an- 
other, pointed out, or nominated as we say, certain persons to 
be voted for. The Republican party, the party of Jefferson, fol- 
lowed the plan of having these nominations made by a gather- 
ing of the party members of Congress. As the Federalists lost 
ground, a nomination by this caucus was practically equivalent 
to an election. But opposition arose. In the States, where 
there had been similar meetings of office holders to determine 
upon nominations for State offices, conventions of delegates 
were beginning to be held ; and there was a general feeling that 
the people should themselves have a hand in the nomination 
of candidates. The Congressional Caucus of 1824, which nom- 
inated William H. Crawford for President, was the last; the 
friends of other candidates protested; and Crawford was not 
elected. In Jackson's administration the nominating convention 
came in. 

The proceedings of the Caucus are here given and also a pro- 
test against the system by the Tennessee legislature. (See 
McLaughlin and Hart, Cyclopcedia of American Government^ 
"caucus.") 

Chamber of the House of Representatives of the United 

States. 

February 14, 1824. 
At a meeting of republican members of Congress, 
assembled this evening, pursuant to public notice, for the 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 123 

purpose of recommending to the people of the United 
States suitable persons to be supported at the approaching 
election, for the offices of president and vice-president of 
the United States : 

On motion of Mr. James Barbour, of Virginia — 

Mr. Benjamin Ruggles, a senator from the state of 
Ohio, was called to the chair, and Mr. Ela Collins, a Rep- 
resentative from the state of New York, was appointed 
secretary. . . . 

''Resolved, That this meeting do now proceed to desig- 
nate, by ballot, a candidate for president of the United 
States." 

Determined in the affirmative. 

On motion of Mr. Van Buren of New York, it was 

''Resolved, That the Chairman call up the republican 
members of congress by states, in order to receive their 
respective ballots." 

Whereupon the Chairman proceeded to a call, and it 
appeared the following members were present. . . . 

Mr. Bassett, of Virginia, and Mr. Cambreleng, of New 
York, were appointed tellers, and, on counting the ballots, 
it appeared that 

William H. Crawford had sixty-four votes, 

John Quincy Adams two votes, 

Andrew Jackson one vote, and 

Nathaniel Macon one vote. 

Mr. Dickerson, of New Jersey, then submitted the fol- 
lowing resolution, which was agreed to : 

" Resolved, That this meeting do now proceed to desig- 
nate, by ballot, a candidate for the office of vice-president 
of the United States." 

Mr. Van Buren, of New York, then stated that he was 
authorized to say that the vice-president having, some time 
since, determined to retire from public life, did not wish 
to be regarded by his friends as a candidate for reelection 
to that office. 

On counting the ballots, it appeared that Albert Gallatin, 



124 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

of Pennsylvania, had fifty-seven votes ; John Q. Adams, of 
Massachusetts, one vote ; WilUam Eiistis, of Massachusetts, 
one vote ; Samuel Smith, of Maryland, one vote ; William 
King, of Maine, one vote ; Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, 
one vote ; Erastus Root, of New York, two votes ; John 
Tod, of Pennsylvania, one vote ; and Walter Lowrie, of 
Pennsylvania, one vote. 

And, thereupon, Mr. Clark, of New York submitted the 
following resolution, to wit : 

Resolved, As the sense of this meeting that William H. 
Crawford of Georgia, be recommended to the people of 
the United States as a proper candidate for the office of 
president, and Albert Gallatin of Pennsylvania for the 
office of vice-president, of the United States, for four years 
from the 4th of March, 1825. 

Resolved, that, in making the foregoing recommenda- 
tions, the members of this meeting have acted in their in- 
dividual characters, as citizens ; that they have been in- 
duced to this measure from a deep and settled conviction 
of the importance of union among republicans, through- 
out the United States, and as the best means of collecting 
and concentrating the feelings and wishes of the people of 
the union upon this important subject. The question be- 
ing put upon these resolutions, they were unanimously 
agreed to. 

Mr. Holmes of Maine then moved that the proceedings 
of the meeting be signed by the chairman and secretary, 
and published, together with an address to the people of 
the United States, to be prepared by a committee to be ap- 
pointed for the purpose. 

On motion, it was ordered that this committee consist 
of the chairman and secretary of the convention, together 
with the gentlemen whose names were signed to the notice 
calling the meeting. 

On motion, it was further 

Resolved, That the chairman and secretary inform the 
gentlemen nominated for the offices of president and vice- 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 125 

president of their nomination, and learn from them whether 
they are wilHng to serve in the said offices, respectively. 

Benjamin Ruggles, Chairman. 
E. Collins, Secretary. 

Miles' Register, Vol. XXV, pp. 388-390. 

The general assembly of the State of Tennessee has 
taken into consideration the practice which, on former oc- 
casions, has prevailed at the City of Washington, of mem- 
bers of the Congress of the United States meeting in 
caucus, and nominating persons to be voted for as presi- 
dent and vice-president of the United States: and, upon 
the best view of the subject which this general assembly has 
been enabled to take, it is believed that the practice of con- 
gressional nominations is a violation of the spirit of the 
Constitution of the United States. 

That instrument provides that there shall be three 
separate and distinct departments of the government, and 
great care and caution seems to have been exercised by its 
framers to prevent any one department from exercising the 
smallest degree of influence over another; and such solici- 
tude was felt on this subject, that, in the second section of 
the second article, it is expressly declared, " That no sena- 
tor or representative, or person holding an office of trust 
or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an 
elector." From this provision, it is apparent that the con- 
vention intended that the members of Congress should not 
be the principal and primary agents or actors in electing 
the president and vice-president of the United States — 
so far from it, they are expressly disqualified from being 
placed in a situation to vote for those high officers. Is 
there not more danger of undue influence to be appre- 
hended, when the members of Congress meet in caucus and 
mutually and solemnly pledge themselves to support the 
individuals who may have the highest number of votes 
in such meeting, than there would be in permitting them 



126 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

to be eligible to the appointment of electors? In the latter 
case, a few characters, rendered ineligible by the Consti- 
tution, might succeed; but in the former, a powerful com- 
bination of influential men is formed, who may fix upon 
the American people their highest officers against the con- 
sent of a clear majority of the people themselves ; and this 
may be done by the very men whom the Constitution in- 
tended to prohibit from acting on the subject. Upon an 
examination of the Constitution of the United States, there 
is but one case in which the members of Congress are per- 
mitted to act, which is in the event of a failure to make an 
election by the electoral colleges; and then the members 
of the House of Representatives vote by States. With 
what propriety the same men, who, in the year 1825, 
may be called on to discharge a constitutional duty, can, in 
the year 1824, go into a caucus and pledge themselves to 
support the men then nominated, cannot be discerned, espe- 
cially when it might so happen that the persons thus nom- 
inated, could, under any circumstances, obtain a single 
vote from the State whose members stand pledged to sup- 
port them. . . . 

This practice is considered objectionable on other ac- 
counts : so long as Congress is considered as composed of 
the individuals on whom the election depends, the execu- 
tive will is subjected to the control of that body, and it 
ceases, in some degree, to be a separate and independent 
branch of the government; and an expectation of execu- 
tive patronage may have an unhappy influence on the de- 
liberations of Congress. 

Upon a review of the whole question, the following 
reasons which admit of much amplification and enlarge- 
ment, more than has been urged in the foregoing, might 
be conclusively relied on, to prove the impolicy and un- 
constitutionality of the Congressional nominations of candi- 
dates for the presidency and vice-presidency of the United 
States: ist. A caucus nomination is against the spirit of 
the Constitution. 2nd. It is both inexpedient and im- 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 127 

politic. 3rd. Members of Congress may become the final 
electors, and therefore ought not to prejudge the case by 
pledging themselves previously to support particular candi- 
dates. 4th. It violates the equality intended to be secured 
by the Constitution to the weaker States. 5th. Caucus 
nominations may, in time (by the interference of the 
States), acquire the force of precedents and become au- 
thoritative, and thereby endanger the liberties of the Ameri- 
can people. 

Miles' Register, Vol. XXV, pp. 137-8. November i, 
1823. 

Questions # 

How could the Caucus be said to violate the Constitution in so 
far as that document has provided for three distinct departments of 
government? What chances of control of the executive by the 
legislative did it afford? Might the members of the House of Rep- 
resentatives be called on to choose a president ? How was the 
president elected in 1824-25? Was it in any way improper for the 
Congressmen to nominate if they also might be called on to choose 
the president? Does the protest against the nomination by office 
holders indicate a rising feeling of self-confidence on the part of 
the people? Is the nomination of officials one of the duties and 
responsibilities of popular government or does popular government 
begin and end with casting ballots at an election? 



PART IV 

THE NEW WEST 

XXIII 

COLONIZATION OF THE WEST 

One of the great tasks of the American people and one of 
their accomplishments has been — perhaps we should say zvas, 
for the work is largely finished — to people the continent from 
sea to sea. The movement into the eastern half of the Missis- 
sippi Valley in the two decades after the war of 1812 was of 
great importance. We should notice that there was, moreover, 
movement within the valley from the older settled regions into 
the unsettled portions. In the selection given below we have 
a vigorous description of the movement and indications of its 
significance. 

The rise of the new West was the most significant fact 
in American history in the years immediately following 
the War of 1812. Ever since the beginnings of settlement 
on the Atlantic coast a frontier of settlement had advanced, 
cutting into the forest, pushing back the Indian, and 
steadily widening the area of settlement and civilization 
in its rear. There had been a West even in early co- 
lonial days ; but then it lay close to the coast. By the mid- 
dle of the eighteenth century the West was to be found 
beyond tide-water, passing toward the Allegheny Moun- 
tains. When this barrier was crossed and the lands on 
the other side of the mountains were won, in the days of 
the Revokition, a new and greater West, more influential 
on the nation's destiny, was created. The men of the 
"Western Waters" or the "Western World," as they 
loved to call themselves, developed under conditions of 

128 



THE NEW WEST 129 

separation from the older settlements and from Europe. 
The lands, practically free, in this vast area not only at- 
tracted the settler, but furnished opportunity for all men to 
hew out their own careers. The wilderness ever opened a 
gate of escape to the poor, the discontented, and the op- 
pressed. If social conditions tended to crystallize in the 
East, beyond the Alleghenies there was freedom. Grap- 
pling with new problems, under these conditions, the so- 
ciety that spread into this region developed inventiveness 
and resourcefulness ; the restraints of custom were broken, 
and new activities, new lines of growth, new institutions 
were produced. Mr. Bryce has well declared that " the 
West is the most American part of America. . . . What 
Europe is to Asia, what England is to the rest of Europe, 
what America is to England, that the Western States and 
Territories are to the Atlantic States." The American 
spirit — the traits that have come to be recognized as the 
most characteristic — was developed in the new common- 
wealths that sprang into life beyond the seaboard. In 
these new western lands Americans achieved a boldness of 
conception of the country's destiny, and democracy. The 
ideal of the West was its emphasis upon the worth and 
possibilities of the common man, its belief in the right of 
every man to rise to the full measure of his own nature, 
under conditions of social mobility. Western democracy 
was no theorist's dream. It came, stark and strong and 
full of life, from the American forest. 

The time had now come when this section was to make it- 
self felt as a dominant force in American life. Already 
it had shown its influence upon the older sections. By its 
competition, by its attractions for settlers, it reacted on 
the East and gave added impulse to the democratic move- 
ment in New England and New York. The struggle of Balti- 
more, New York City, and Philadelphia for the rising com- 
merce of the interior was a potent factor in the develop- 
ment of the Middle Region. In the South the spread of 
the cotton plant and the new form which slavery took were 
10 



130 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

phases of the westward movement of the plantation. The 
discontent of the Old South is explained hy the migration 
of her citizens to the West and by the competition of her 
colonists in the lands beyond the AUeghenies. The future 
of the South lay in its affiliation to the Cotton Kingdom of 
the lower States which were rising on the plains of the 
Gulf of Mexico. . . . 

The ^^>stern States ranked with the INIiddle Region 
and the South in respect to population. Between 1812 and 
182 1 six new western commonwealths were added to the 
Union: Louisiana (1812), Indiana (1816), Mississippi 
(1817), Illinois (1818), Alabama (1819), and Missouri 
(1821). By 1830, the trans-Allegheny States had an ag- 
gregate population of over 3,600.000, representing a gain 
of nearly a million and a half in the decade. The per- 
centages of increase in these new communities tell a strik- 
ing story. Even the older sisters of the Western group, 
like Kentucky, with twenty-two per cent., Louisiana, with 
forty-one, and Tennessee and Ohio, each with sixty-one, 
showed a sharp contrast with the seaboard States, outside 
of Georgia and Maine. But for the newer communities 
the percentages of gain are still more significant. The fig- 
ures are as follows: Indiana, 133 per cent, Illinois, 185, 
Alabama, 142, and Mississippi, 81. Ohio, which, hardly 
more than a generation before, was " fresh, untouched, un- 
bounded, magnificent wilderness," now had a population of 
nearly a million, surpassing the combined population of 
^lassachusetts and Connecticut. 

A new section had arisen and was growing at such a rate 
that a description of it in any single year would be falsified 
before it could be published. Xor is the whole strength 
of the western element revealed by these figures for the 
\\'estern States. In order to estimate the weight of the 
western population in 1830, we must add six hundred thou- 
sand souls in the western half of New York, three hun- 
dred thousand in the interior counties of Pennsylvania, 
and over two hundred thousand in the trans-Allegheny 



THE NEW WEST 131 

counties of Virginia, more than a million, making an ag- 
gregate of 4,600,000. Fully to reckon the forces of back- 
woods democracy, moreover, we should include a large 
fraction of the interior population of Maine, Xew Hamp- 
shire, and Vermont, North Carolina, and Georgia, and 
northern Xew York. All of these regions were to be influ- 
enced by the ideals of democratic rule which were springing 
up in the Mississippi A'alley. . . . 

At the close of the War of 181 2 the West had much 
homogeneity. Parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio 
had been settled so many years that they no longer 
presented typical western conditions; but, for the most 
part, the West then was occupied by pioneer farmers, 
hunting and raising stock for a living, with but a small 
surplus demanding a market. By the close of the period, 
however, industrial differentiation between the northern 
and southern portions of the Mississippi Valley had be- 
come clearly marked. The Northwest was changing to a 
land of farmers and town-builders, anxious for a market 
for their grain and cattle ; while the Southwest was be- 
coming increasingly a cotton-raising section, sw^ayed by 
the same impulses in respect to staple exports as those 
which governed the southern seaboard. Economically, the 
northern portion of the valley tended to connect itself with 
the Middle Region, while the southern portion came into 
increasingly intimate connection w-ith the South. Never- 
theless, it would be a radical mistake not to deal with the 
West as a separate region. With all these differences 
within itself, the West had a fundamental unity in its social 
structure and its democratic ideals, and at times its separate 
existence was revealed in no uncertain way. 

The histor}^ of the occupation of the Mississippi Valley 
is the history of the colonization of a region far surpassing 
in area the territory of the old thirteen States. The ex- 
planation of this movement into the interior is a simple 
one. It was, indeed, but the continuation of the advance of 
the frontier which had begun in the earliest days of Ameri- 



132 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

can colonization. The existence of a great body of land, 
offered at so low a price as to be practically free, inevitably 
drew population toward the West. When wild lands sold 
for two dollars an acre, and, indeed, could be occupied by 
squatters almost without molestation, it was certain that 
settlers would seek them instead of paying twenty to fifty 
dollars an acre for farms that lay not much farther to the 
east — particularly when the western lands were more 
fertile. The introduction of the steamboat on the western 
waters in 1811, moreover, had revolutionized transporta- 
tion conditions in the West. . . . 

New England, after the distress following the War of 
1812 and the hard winter of 1816-1817, had sent many 
settlers into western New York and Ohio; the Western 
Reserve had increased in population by the immigration 
of Connecticut people ; Pennsylvania and New Jersey had 
sent colonists to southern and central Ohio, with Cin- 
cinnati as the commercial center. In Ohio the settlers of 
Middle State origin were decidedly more numerous than 
those from the South, and New England's share was dis- 
tinctly smaller than that of the South. In the Ohio legis- 
lature in 1822 there were thirty-eight of Middle State 
birth, thirty-three of Southern (including Kentucky), and 
twenty-five of New England. But Kentucky and Tennes- 
see (now sufficiently settled to need larger and cheaper 
farms for the rising generation), together with the up- 
country of the South, contributed the mass of the pioneer 
colonists to most of the Mississippi Valley prior to 1830. 
Of course a large fraction of these came from the Scotch- 
Irish and German stock that in the first half of the eight- 
eenth century passed from Pennsylvania along the Great 
Valley to the up-country of the South. Indiana, so late 
as 1850, showed but ten thousand natives of New England; 
and twice as many persons of Southern as of Middle State 
origin. In the early history of Indiana, North Carolina 
contributed a large fraction of the population, giving to 
it its " Hoosler " as well as much of its Ouaker stock. 



THE NEW WEST I33 

Illinois in this period had but a sprinkling of New Eng- 
landers, engaged in business in the little towns. The 
Southern stock, including settlers from Kentucky and 
Tennessee, was the preponderant class. The Illinois legis- 
lature for 1833 contained fifty-eight from the South (in- 
cluding Kentucky and Tennessee), nineteen from the 
Middle States, and only four from New England. Mis- 
souri's population was chiefly Kentuckians and Tennes- 
seeans. 

The leaders of this Southern element came, in consider- 
able measure, from well-to-do classes, who migrated to im- 
prove their conditions in the freer opportunities of a new 
country. Land speculation, the opportunity of political 
preferment, and the advantages which these growing com- 
munities brought to practitioners of the law combined to 
attract men of this class. Many of them, as we shall see, 
brought their slaves with them, under the systems of in- 
denture which made this possible. Missouri, especially, 
was sought by the larger planters with their slaves. But 
it was the poorer whites, the more democratic, non-slave- 
holding element of the South, which furnished the great 
bulk of settlers north of the Ohio. Prior to the close of 
the decade the same farmer type was in possession of large 
parts of the Gulf Region; but here, through the whole of 
our period, the slaveholding planters came in increasing 
numbers. 

Two of the families which left Kentucky for the newer 
country in these years will illustrate the movement. The 
Lincoln family had reached that State by migration from 
the North with the stream of backswoodsmen which bore 
along with it the Calhouns and the Boones. Abraham Lin- 
coln was born in a hilly, barren portion of Kentucky in 
1809. In 1816, when Lincoln was a boy of seven, his 
father, a poor carpenter, took his family across the Ohio 
on a raft, with a capital consisting of his kit of tools and 
several hundred gallons of whisky. In Indiana he hewed 
a path into the forest to a new home in the southern part of 



134 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

the State, where for a year the family Hved in a " half- 
faced camp," or open shed of poles, clearing their land. 
In the hardships of the pioneer life Lincoln's mother died, 
as did many another frontier woman. By 1830 Lincoln 
had become a tall, strapping youth, six feet four inches 
in height, able to sink his ax deeper than other men into 
the opposing forest. At that time his father moved to the 
Sangammon country of Illinois with the rush of land- 
seekers into that new and popular region. Near the home 
of Lincoln in Kentucky was born, in 1808, Jefferson 
Davis, whose father, shortly before the War of 1812, went 
with the stream of southward movers to Louisiana and 
then to Mississippi. Davis's brothers fought under Jack- 
son in the War of 18 12, and the family became typical 
planters of the Gulf Region, 

Meanwhile, the roads that led to the Ohio Valley were 
followed by an increasing tide of settlers from the East. 
'' Old America seems to be breaking up, and moving west- 
ward," wrote Birkbeck in 1817, as he passed on the Na- 
tional Road through Pennsylvania. 

We are seldom out of sight, as we travel on this grand track, 
towards the Ohio, of family groups, behind and before us. . . . 
A small waggon (so light that you might almost carry it, yet 
strong enough to bear a good load of bedding, utensils and pro- 
visions, and a swarm of young citizens, and to sustain marvel- 
lous shocks in its passage over these rocky heights) with two 
small horses; sometimes a cow or two, comprises their all; ex- 
cepting a little store of hard-earned cash for the land ofiEice of 
the district; where they may obtain a title for as many acres 
as they possess half-dollars, being one fourth of the purchase 
money. The waggon has a tilt, or cover, made of a sheet, or 
perhaps a blanket. The family are seen before, behind, or 
within the vehicle, according to the road or the weather, or per- 
haps the spirits of the party. ... A cart and single horse fre- 
quently affords the means of transfer, sometimes a horse and 
pack-saddle. Often the back of the poor pilgrim bears all his 
effects and his wife follows, naked footed. . . . 



THE NEW WEST 135 

McLean of Ohio said in the House of Representatives in 
1825: 

In a favorable season for emigration, the traveller upon this 
highway will scarcely lose sight of passengers, of some de- 
scription. Hundreds of families are seen migrating to the 
West, with ease and comfort. Drovers from the West, with 
their cattle, of almost every description, are seen passing east- 
ward, seeking a market on this side of the mountains. Indeed, 
this road may be compared to a great street, or thoroughfare, 
through some populous city — travellers on foot, on horseback, 
and in carriages, are seen mingling on its paved surface. 

The Southerners who came by land along the many bad 
roads through Tennessee and Kentucky usually traveled 
with heavy, schooner-shaped wagons, drawn by four or 
six horses. These family groups, crowding roads and 
fords, marching toward the sunset, with the canvas-cov- 
ered wagon, ancestor of the prairie-schooner of the later 
times, were typical of the overland migration. The poorer 
classes traveled on foot, sometimes carrying their entire 
effects in a cart drawn by themselves. Those of more 
means took horses, cattle, and sheep, and sometimes sent 
their household goods by wagon or by steamboat up the 
Mississippi. . . . 

Arrived at the nearest point to his destination on the 
Ohio, the emigrant either cut out a road to his new home, 
or pushed up some tributary of that river in a keel-boat. 
If he was one of the poorer classes, he became a squatter 
on the public lands, trusting to find in the profits of his 
farming the means of paying for his land. Not uncom- 
monly, after clearing the land, he sold his improvements to 
the actual purchaser, under the customary usage, or by pre- 
emption laws. With the money thus secured he would 
purchase new land in a remoter area, and thus establish 
himself as an independent landowner. Under the credit 
system which existed at the opening of the period, the 
settler purchased his land at two dollars per acre, by a 



136 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

cash payment of fifty cents and the rest In instahments run- 
ning over a period of four years ; but by the new law of 
1820 the settler was permitted to buy a tract of eighty 
acres from the government at a minimum price of a dollar 
and a quarter per acre, without credit. The price of labor 
in the towns along the Ohio, coupled with the low cost of 
provisions, made it possible for even a poor day-laborer 
from the East to accumulate the necessary amount to make 
his land-purchase. 

Having in this way settled down either as a squatter or 
as a landowner, the pioneer proceeded to hew out a clear- 
ing in the midst of the forest. Commonly he had selected 
his lands with reference to the value of the soil, as indi- 
cated by the character of the hardwoods, but this meant 
that the labor of clearing was the more severe. Under 
the sturdy strokes of his ax the light of the day was let into 
the little circle of cleared ground. With the aid of his 
neighbors, called together under the social attractions of a 
" raising," with its inevitable accompaniment of whisky 
and a '' frolic," he erected his log cabin. If he was too re- 
mote from neighbors or too poor to afford a cabin, as in 
the case of Lincoln's father, a rude half-faced camp served 
the purpose for the first months of his occupation. 
" America," wrote Birkbeck, " was bred in a cabin." 

Having secured a foothold, the settler next proceeded to 
*' girdle " or " deaden " an additional forest area, prepara- 
tory to his farming operations. This consisted in cutting 
a ring through the bark around the lower portion of the 
trunk, to prevent the sap from rising. In a short time the 
withered branches were ready for burning, and in the 
midst of the blackened stumps the first crop of corn and 
vegetables was planted. 

In regions nearer to the East, as in western New York, 
it was sometimes possible to repay a large portion of the 
cost of clearing by the sale of pot and pearl ashes extracted 
from the logs, which were brought together for burning 
into huge piles. This was accomplished by a " log-rolling," 



THE NEW WEST 137 

under the united efforts of the neighbors, as in the case 
of the raising. More commonly in the West the logs were 
wasted by burning, except such as were split into rails, 
which, laid one above another, made the zig zag " worm 
fences " for the protection of the fields of the pioneer. . . . 

The backwoodsman of this type represented the outer 
edge of the advance of civilization. Where settlement was 
closer, cooperative activity possible, and little villages, 
with the mill and retail stores, existed, conditions of Hfe 
were ameliorated, and a better type of pioneer was found. 
Into such regions circuit-riders and wandering preachers 
had carried the beginnings of church organization, and 
schools were started. But the frontiersmen proper con- 
stituted a moving class, ever ready to sell out their clear- 
ings in order to press on to a new frontier, where game 
more abounded, soil was reported to be better, and where 
the forest furnished a welcome retreat from the uncon- 
genial encroachments of civilization. If, however, he was 
thrifty, and forehanded, the backwoodsman remained on 
his clearing, improving his farm and sharing in the change 
from wilderness life. 

Behind the type of the backwoodsman came the type of 
the pioneer farmer. Equipped with a little capital, he 
often, as we have seen, purchased the clearing, and thus 
avoided some of the initial hardships of pioneer life. In 
the course of a few years, as sawmills were erected, frame 
houses took the place of the log cabins ; the rough clearing, 
with its stumps, gave way to well tilled fields ; orchards 
were planted ; livestock roamed over the enlarged clearing ; 
and an agricultural surplus w^as ready for export. Soon 
the adventurous speculator offered corner lots in a new 
town site, and the rude beginnings of a city were seen. . . . 

But the outlet from the West over the roads to the 
East and South was but a subordinate element in her in- 
ternal commerce. It was the Father of Waters, with its 
ramifying tributaries, which gathered the products of the 
great valley and brought them to New Orleans. Down 



138 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

the ^Mississippi floated a multitude of craft: lumber rafts 
from the Allegheny, the old-time arks, with cattle, flour, 
and bacon, hay-boats, keel-boats, and skiflfs, all mingled 
with the steamboats which plied the western waters. 
Flatboatmen, raftsmen, and deckhands constituted a 
turbulent and reckless population, living on the country 
through which they passed, fighting and drinking in true 
'' half horse, half alligator " style. Prior to the steamboat, 
all of the commerce from New Orleans to the upper coun- 
try was carried on in about twenty barges, averaging a 
hundred tons each, and making one trip a year. Although 
the steamboat did not drive out the other craft, it revo- 
lutionized the commerce of the river. Whereas it had 
taken the keel-boats thirty to forty days to descend from 
Louisville to New Orleans, and about ninety days to 
ascend the fifteen hundred miles of navigation by poling 
and warping up stream, the steamboat had shortened the 
time, by 1822, to seven days down and sixteen days up. 
As the steamboats ascended the various tributaries of the 
Mississippi to gather the products of the growing West, 
the pioneers came more and more to realize the impor- 
tance of the invention. They resented the idea of the 
monopoly which Fulton and Livingston wished to enforce 
prior to the decision of Chief Justice Marshall, in the case 
of Gibbons v. Ogden — a decision of vital interest to the 
whole interior. 

They saw in the steamboat a symbol of their own devel- 
opment. 

An Atlantic cit [boasted a writer in the Western Monthly 
Review] who talks of us under the name of backwoodsmen, 
would not believe, that such fairy structures of oriental gor- 
geousness and splendor, as the Washington, the Florida, the 
Walk in the Water, the Lady of the Lake, etc., etc., had ever 
existed in the imaginative brain of a romancer, much less that 
they were actually in existence, rushing down the Mississippi as 
on the wings of the wind, or plowing up between the forests, 
and walking against the mighty current " as things of life," 



THE NEW WEST 139 

bearing speculators, merchants, dandies, fine ladies, every thing 
real and every thing affected in the form of humanity, with 
pianos, and stocks of novels, and cards, and dice, and flirting, 
and love-making, and drinking, and champaigne, and on the 
deck, perhaps, three hundred fellows, who have seen alliga- 
tors, and neither fear whiskey, nor gun-powder. A steam boat 
coming from New Orleans brings to the remotest villages of 
our streams and the very doors of the cabins a little Paris, a 
section of Broadway, or a slice of Philadelphia, to ferment in 
the minds of our young people the innate propensity for fash- 
ions and finery. Within a day's journey of us, three distinct 
canals are in respectable progress towards completion. . . . 
Cincinnati will soon be the center of the " celestial empire," as 
the Chinese say; and instead of encountering the storms, the 
sea sickness, and dangers of a passage from the Gulf of Mexico 
to the Atlantic, whenever the Erie Canal shall be completed, the 
opulent Southern planters will take their families, their dogs 
and parrots, through a world of forests, from New Orleans to 
New York, giving us a call by the way. When they are more 
acquainted with us, their voyage will often terminate here. 

F. J. Turner: The Colonization of the West, 1820-1830, 
in The Am. Historical Review, Vol. XI, pp. 303-324, passim. 

Questions 

Explain how democracy and the American spirit developed in the 
men who settled the Mississippi Valley? How did this spirit react 
on the older settled portions of the country? Give the numbers of 
the population that was western in spirit in 1830. Was there any 
difference in the character of the settlements of Indiana, Illinois, 
Alabama, and Mississippi before 1815? How did the development 
of cotton-raising tend to make the southern part of the Mississippi 
Valley different from the northern? What became of the small 
farmers in the Gulf States? From what sections of the country 
did a very large number of those who settled in the Valley before 
1830 come? Illustrate from the history of the Lincoln and Davis 
families the manner in which the early settlers of North and South 
came from the same region. What were the means by which 
settlers reached the West? How could a pioneer without money 
acquire a farm? How did he reduce it to cultivation and establish 
a home? Describe the pioneer farmer; the way a clearing was trans- 
formed into a settled village; the importance of the Mississippi; 



140 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

types of boats in use before the steamboat. Illustrate in your own 
words how the Mississippi River and the Steamboat brought the 
life of New Orleans and the eastern seaboard face to face with 
the pioneer conditions of the backwoods. 



XXIV 

THE OHIO VALLEY IN 1817 

Morris Birkbeck was an English Radical who, in 1817, bought 
land for the founding of an English settlement at English 
Prairie, Illinois. Disgusted with the narrow and intolerant 
Toryism of the English government at that period, he was 
quick to sympathize with the democratic ideals of the West and 
to become enthusiastic over the rapid growth of the Western 
country. To Birkbeck's account is added a more detailed ac- 
count of the land system, a year or two later, from another 
resident of English Prairie. 



June 18. At Chillicothe is the office for the several 
transactions regarding the disposal of the public lands, of 
this district, which is a large tract, botinded on the west 
by the river Sciota. This btisiness is conducted with great 
exactness on a principle of checks, which are said to pre- 
vent the abuses formerly prevailing among the land-job- 
bers and surveyor. The following, if I am rightly in- 
formed, is an outline of the measures now adopted in the 
sale of government lands. 

The tract of country which is to be disposed of is sur- 
veyed, and laid out in sections of a mile square, containing 
six hundred and forty acres, and these are subdivided into 
quarters, and, in particular situations, half-quarters. The 
country is also laid out in counties of about twenty miles 
square and townships of six miles square in some in- 
stances, and in others eight. The townships are num- 
bered in ranges from north to south, and the ranges 
are numbered from west to east ; and lastly, the sections 



THE NEW WEST 141 

in each township are marked numerically. All these 
lines are well defined in the woods by marks on the 
trees. This done, at a period of which public notice is 
given, the lands in question are put up to auction, except- 
ing the sixteenth section in every township, which is re- 
served for the support of schools and the maintenance of 
the poor. There are also sundry reserves of entire town- 
ships as funds for the support of seminaries on a more 
extensive scale, and sometimes for other purposes of gen- 
eral interest. No government lands are sold under two 
dollars per acre ; and I believe they are put up at this price 
in quarter sections, at the auction, and if there be no bid- 
ding they pass on. The best lands and most favorable 
situations are sometimes run up to ten or twelve dollars, 
and in some late instances much higher. The lots which 
remain unsold are from that time open to the public, at 
the price of two dollars per acre; one-fourth to be paid 
down, and the remaining three-fourths to be paid by in- 
stallments in five years ; at which time, if the payments are 
not completed, the lands revert to the state, and the prior 
advances are forfeited. 

When a purchaser has made his election of one, or any 
number of vacant quarters, he repairs to the land office, 
pays eighty dollars, or as many times that sum as he pur- 
chases quarters, and receives a certificate, which is the 
basis of the complete title, which will be given him when 
he pays all ; this he may do immediately, and receive eight 
per cent, interest for prompt payment. The sections thus 
sold are marked immediately on the general plan, which is 
always open at the land office to public inspection, with the 
letters A. P., '' Advance paid." There is a receiver and 
a register at each land office, who are checks on each other, 
and are remunerated by a percentage of the receipts. . . . 

Cincinnati, like most American towns, stands too low; 
it is built on the banks of the Ohio and the lower part is 
not out of reach of spring floods. 



I4-' READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

As if '' life was not more than meat, and the body than 
raiment," every consideration of health and enjoyment 
yields to views of mercantile convenience. Shortsighted 
and narrow economy ! by which the lives of thousands are 
shortened, and the comfort of all sacrificed to mistaken 
notions of private interest. 

Cincinnati is, however, a most thriving place, and backed 
as it is already by a great population and a most fruitful 
country, bids fair to be one of the first cities of the West. 
We are told, and we cannot doubt the fact, that the chief 
of what we see is the work of four years. The hundreds 
of commodious, well-finished brick houses, the spacious and 
busy markets, the substantial public buildings, the thou- 
sands of prosperous well-dressed, industrious inhabitants ; 
the numerous waggons and drays, the gay carriages and 
elegant females ; the shoals of craft on the river, the busy 
stir prevailing everywhere; house building, boat building, 
paving and leveling streets; the numbers of country 
people, constantly coming and going; with the spacious 
taverns, crowded with travellers from a distance. 

All this is so much more than I could comprehend, from 
a description of a new tov/n just risen from the woods, 
that I despair of conveying an adequate idea of it to my 
English friends. It is enchantment, and Liberty is the fair 
enchantress. . . . 

July 6. W^e are now at the town of Madison, on our 
way through the State of Indiana towards Yincennes. 
This place is on the banks of the Ohio, about seventy-five 
miles from Cincinnati. 

Our road has been mostly from three to six miles from 
the river, passing over fertile hills and alluvial bottoms. 

The whole is appropriated ; but although settlements 
multiply daily, many large intervals remain between the 
clearings. 

Indiana is evidently newer than the State of Ohio; and, 
if I mistake not, the character of the settlers is different, 



THE NEW WEST 143 

and superior to that of the first settlers in Ohio, who were 
generally very indigent people : those who are now fixing 
themselves in Indiana bring with them habits of comfort, 
and the means of procuring the conveniences of life : I 
observe this in the construction of their cabins, and the 
neatness surrounding them, and especially in their well- 
stocked gardens, so frequent here, and so rare in the State 
of Ohio, where their earlier and longer settlement would 
have afiforded them better opportunities of making this 
great provision for domestic comfort. 

I have also had the pleasure of seeing many families of 
healthy children ; and from my own continued observation, 
confirmed by the testimony of every competent evidence that 
has fallen in my way, I repeat with still more confidence 
that the diseases so alarming to all emigrants, and which 
have been fatal to so many, are not attached to the climate, 
but to local situation. Repetitions will be excused on this 
important subject. Hills on a dry soil are healthy, after 
some progress has been made in clearing; for deep and 
close woods are not salubrious either to new comers or old 
settlers. The neighbourhood of overflowing streams, and 
all wet, marshy soils, are productive of agues and bilious 
fevers in the autumn. 

Such is the influx of strangers into this State, that the 
industry of the settlers is severely taxed to provide food 
for themselves, and a superfluity for new comers : and thus 
it is probable there will be a market for all the spare 
produce for a series of years, owing to the accession of 
strangers, as well as the rapid internal growth of popula- 
tion. This is a favourable condition of a new colony, which 
has not been calculated on by those who take a distinct 
[distant] view of the subject. This year Kentucky has 
sent a supply in aid of this hungry infant State. 

July 7. I have good authority for contradicting a sup- 
position that I have met with in England, respecting the 
inhabitants of Indiana — that they are lawless, semibar- 



144 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

barous vagabonds, dangerous to live among. On the con- 
trary, the laws are respected, and are effectual ; and the 
manners of the people are kind and gentle to each other 
and to strangers. 

An unsettled country, lying contiguous to one that is 
settled, is always a place of retreat for rude and even aban- 
doned characters, who find the regulations of society in- 
tolerable; and such, no doubt, had taken up their unfixed 
abode in Indiana. These people retire, with the wolves, 
from the regular colonists, keeping always to the outside 
of civilized settlements. They rely for their subsistence 
on their rifle, and a scanty cultivation of corn, and live in 
great poverty and privation, a degree only short of the 
savage state of Indians. . . . 

July i8. On any spot w^here a few settlers cluster to- 
gether, attracted by ancient neighbourhood, or by the good- 
ness of the soil, or vicinity to a mill, or by whatever cause, 
some enterprising proprietor finds in his section what he 
deems a good site for a town : he has it surveyed and laid 
out in lots, which he sells, or offers for sale by auction. 

The new town then assumes the name of its founder : 
a storekeeper builds a little framed store, and sends for a 
few cases of goods ; and then a tavern starts up, which 
becomes the residence of a doctor and a lawyer, and the 
boarding-house of the storekeeper, as well as the resort of 
the weary traveler: soon follow a blacksmith and other 
handicraftsmen in useful successioai : a schoolmaster, who 
is also the minister of religion, becomes an important ac- 
cession to this rising community. Thus the town pro- 
ceeds, if it proceeds at all, with accumulating force, until 
it becomes the metropolis of the neighbourhood. Hun- 
dreds of these speculations may have failed, but hundreds 
prosper; and thus trade begins and thrives, as population 
grows around these lucky spots ; imports and exports main- 
taining their just proportion. One year ago the neighbor- 
hood of this very town of Princeton, was clad in " buck- 



THE NEW WEST 145 

skin " ; now the men appear at church in good blue cloth, 
and the women in fine calicoes and straw bonnets. 

The town being fairly established, a cluster of inhabit- 
ants, small as it may be, acts as a stimulus on the cultiva- 
tion of the neighbourhood: redundancy of supply is the 
consequence, and this demands a vent. Water mills, or in 
defect of water power, steam mills rise on the nearest 
navigable stream, and thus an effectual and constant mar- 
ket is secured for the increasing surplus of produce. 

Morris Birkbeck: Notes on a Journey in America, 2d 
Edition, pp. 69-71, 80-82, 89-92, 103-105. London, 1818. 

B 

When a part of the country is surveyed and offered for 
sale, notice is given in the public papers for some months 
previous, with the time and place of sale. At the sale 
the lots are put up, beginning with the lowest number, at 
two dollars per acre ; and if there be no bidder, another 
lot is put up, and so continued till the sale is ended. If 
a bidding be made, the lot is sold ; if more than one bidder, 
then the highest is the purchaser. He must then pay down 
one-fourth part of the purchase money, one-fourth more 
at the end of two years, one-fourth more at the end of 
three years, and the remaining fourth at the end of four 
years ; and if it be not then paid the land reverts to the 
government, and the money paid down forfeited. At the 
time of sale the purchaser receives a certificate of the quar- 
ter purchased, and of the money paid thereon, with the 
times of payment of the other instalments. These instal- 
ments bear interest from the day of purchasing at six per 
cent., but if they be paid on or before they respectively be- 
come due, no interest is demanded thereon. But should 
the payment be delayed, only one day after it becomes due, 
interest is demanded from the day of sale. If a person 
at the time of sale should pay the whole of the instalments, 
after the first, he receives eight per cent, discount on the 
11 



146 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

sum so paid, according to the length of time of each in- 
stalment; or if at any time before the instalments are due, 
discount is allowed according to time. 

As many people who have speculated in land have let 
their interest run, much will be due at the end of four 
years; but should the instalments and interest be paid on 
the day the last instalment becomes due, the interest will 
be saved on the fourth instalment; but four years' interest 
are due on the second and third instalments, that is 38 
dollars, 40 cents, but one day later will make it 57 dollars, 
60 cents. 

If not paid at the end of four years, I have reason to 
think some time is allowed before the land reverts to the 
government. But the interest still runs on till the day of 
payment ; and if the arrears be not paid, the land and all 
its improvements, if any, return to the government. 

The above was the plan on which the public lands were 
disposed of ; but by an act of Congress passed last spring, 
a new plan has been adopted, and took place on the ist 
of July, by which all credit on public land is done away, 
and the price reduced to i dollar 25 cents per acre, or 
200 dollars for a quarter-section ; that is, for land that has 
been offered by public auction. 

I have every reason to conclude that much remains due 
on the land entered in most of the Western States, and 
some will, most probably, be forfeited to government, as 
much of it was entered on speculation, and still remains 
in a state of nature. 

The alteration in the price of land, the large quantities 
lately offered for sale, with the shortness of money, will, 
I think, prove extremely hurtful to some of the large 
speculators ; but, in my opinion, will in the end be bene- 
ficial to the country at large, as it will oblige those who 
enter land to bring it into cultivation, instead of taking up 
large quantities, as it will now require a greater capital to 
speculate than it has hitherto done. Many of the specu- 
lators calculate to sell again without paying any of the 



THE NEW WEST 147 

instalments, after the first deposit, but some of them are 
now greatly dispirited, and would be happy to dispose of 
their land on almost any terms, at least to recover what it 
at first and since has cost them. 

John Woods: Two Years Residence . , . in the Illinois 
Country, pp. 267-270. London, 1822. 

Questions 

Describe the system of surveying the public lands. How were 
the lands put on sale? What terms were afforded purchasers? 
How did Cincinnati appear in 1818? What was Birkbeck's opinion 
of the healthfulness of the prairies? Describe the process by which 
a town grew up, and civilization advanced in the West. 

XXV 

THE COMMERCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI 

The Mississippi Valley is by nature a unit. The Mississippi, 
Ohio and Missouri rivers with their great tributaries, such as 
the Tennessee, make up the finest natural system of inland 
waterways covering so vast a territory that the world has ever 
used. A significant thing is that the system centers at the point 
where the Mississippi reaches the sea, and where goods must 
be transshipped from river craft to ocean-going ships. So long 
as water transportation was the cheapest and most commodious 
that the world knew, New Orleans was certain to flourish. As 
the focus of the world's greatest inland transportation system, 
she might hope to become the world's greatest city. The selec- 
tion indicates the causes that defeated this : the establishment of 
a swifter means of transportation to the seaboard by means of 
railways; the greater convenience of ports on the Atlantic 
coast for communication with Europe ; and the Civil War, which 
cut off the trade of the Ohio and Missouri valleys from New 
Orleans and helped to make closer and stronger the commercial 
connection railway systems had already established between 
the Northwest and the North Atlantic States. 

During all this period [1816-1840], and despite all these 
difficulties, the number of arrivals at New Orleans and the 



148 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

amount of river business on the Lower Mississippi con- 
tinued to steadily increase. ... In regard to the flatboats 
and other craft, there is no sufficiently definite information 
for most of this period. It should be said, however, that 
while the steamboats supplanted the flatboats in many lines 
of trade, they did not entirely drive them off the river for 
fifteen or twenty years afterwards. During all this period 
when the Western cities were building steamboats the flat- 
boats also were increasing in numbers. They were found 
serviceable in carrying hay, coal, et cetera, and in reaching 
the interior streams. The Mississippi counted some hun- 
dreds of tributaries. On some of these the settlements 
were sparse, and the surplus products afforded at best one 
or two cargoes a year, and these were sent much more 
conveniently and cheaply in flatboats than in steamers. . . . 
The early flatboats had depended altogether on the current 
of the river to carry them down. The system of towing 
was tried in 1829, and a small steamer, which would be 
called a tug to-day, was successfully used in towing keel- 
boats up and down stream. The idea did not seem, how- 
ever, to meet with much favor, the flatboat men having a 
superstition that their conjunction with a steamer was 
not favorable to them, and it was reserved for a later 
generation to definitely try in the barge the system of towing 
freight up and down stream. . . . 

As the first two decades of the century showed the set- 
tlement of the Ohio basin, and a rapid increase in popula- 
tion and production, so the next two resulted in the 
settlement of the lower Mississippi region from Louisiana 
to the mouth of the Ohio. The removal of the Indian 
tribes to the Indian Territory, the building of levees, and 
the immense increase in the demand for cotton, hastened 
the development of West Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, 
and Northern Louisiana. The Western products received 
at New Orleans, although they did not fall off, constituted 
a smaller percentage of the city's total trade, while cotton 
and sugar became each year more important items .commer- 



THE NEW WEST 149 

daily. In other words, the Western trade, while not grow- 
ing less, did not increase as fast as that section increased 
in population and production, nor as fast as the cotton 
trade. 

It was during this period that the South first began to 
insist on the sovereignty of King Cotton, and New Or- 
leans claimed, like Mahomet, to be its prophet. The rapid 
development of the cotton manufacturing industries in 
Europe incited the planters to devote more and more acres 
to it, and it became highly profitable to cultivate cotton 
even on credit. New Orleans was overflowing with money 
in those flush times, and lent it readily, and the credit sys- 
tem of the South was firmly established, to last even to this 
day. . . . The whole agricultural country along the lower 
Mississippi and its bayous and streams became, in a man- 
ner, the commercial slaves of the New Orleans factors, 
and were not allowed to sell to anyone else or buy from 
them. The Western produce shipped down the river never 
stopped at the plantation, but was sent direct to New Or- 
leans, and thence transhipped up the river over the same 
route it had just gone. . . . 

While the Mississippi Valley was listening at the Mem- 
phis convention to the story of its glories to come, and 
river men were calculating on the immense traffic that vv'as 
assured the future. New Orleans was confident of the 
future. Few of its people anticipated any danger of its 
future, and it was predicted not only in American papers 
but in the British Quarterly Review that it must ultimately 
become, on account of the Mississippi, the most important 
commercial city in America, if not in the world. 

That eminent statistical and economical authority, De 
Bow's Review, declared that " no city of the world has 
ever advanced as a mart of commerce with such gigantic 
and rapid strides as New Orleans." 

It was no idle boast. Between 1830 and 1840 no city 
of the United States kept pace with it. When the census 
was taken it was fourth in population, exceeded only by 



150 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and third in point 
of commerce of the ports of the world, exceeded only by 
London, Liverpool, and New York, being, indeed, but a 
short distance behind the latter city, and ahead of it in the 
export of domestic products. Unfortunately, its imports 
were out of all proportion with its exports. It shipped 
coffee, hardware, and other heavy articles like this up the 
river, but it left the West dependent on New York and 
the other Atlantic cities for nearly all the finer class of 
manufactured goods they needed. 

Later on, wh^n the West began to go into manufacturing 
itself, and Cincinnati and Pittsburgh became important 
manufacturing centers. New Orleans imported their goods 
and reshipped them to the plantations. Of these ship- 
ments up-stream over 75 per cent., strange to say, were 
articles which had previously been sent down-stream. 
Cincinnati sent its lard, candles, pork, et cetera, to New 
Orleans to be carried up by the coast packets to Bayou 
Sara and Baton Rouge. From these latter towns were 
shipped so many hogsheads of sugar and barrels of mo- 
lasses to New Orleans to be thence sent by the Cincinnati 
boats to the Ohio metropolis. There was no trade be- 
tween the Western cities and the Southern plantations, 
very little even with the towns ; it all paid tribute to New 
Orleans. . . . 

The extent of the commercial area covered by the 
river traffic of New Orleans in i860 will show what was 
lost in the four years of war that followed, and never fully 
regained. New Orleans then absolutely controlled the en- 
tire river trade, commerce, and crops of the State of 
Louisiana. In Texas, through the Red River, it secured 
the crops of the northern half of the State; through the 
Arkansas and the Red it secured the products of the 
greater portion of the Indian Territory. It controlled 
the trade of the southern two-thirds of Arkansas, all the 
Ouachita and Arkansas valleys, all the river front, and a 
portion of the White River trade running up into Mis- 



THE NEW WEST 151 

souri. It controlled Mississippi with the exception of the 
eastern portion of the State, through which ran the Mobile 
and Ohio Railroad and the tributaries of the Alabama. All 
the produce of western Tennessee and half that of middle 
Tennessee went to New Orleans ; and in Kentucky a large 
proportion of the business went to the Crescent City. The 
bulk of the produce of the Ohio Valley had been diverted 
to the lakes and Atlantic seaboard, but probably one-fifth 
of it found its way to New Orleans direct or by way of 
the Cincinnati and Louisville packets. . . . 

Yet it was admitted at the time that New Orleans 
and the river route were losing some trade, and it was felt 
that the railroads were diverting traffic away from it. 
They had tapped the river at various points. The tribu- 
taries running into the Upper Tennessee, had formerly 
sent down their produce by flatboats to New Orleans, the 
boats reaching the city in fleets of thirty and forty. Rail- 
roads had diverted much of this traffic to Charleston, Sav- 
annah, and the Atlantic cities. The trade of northern 
Alabama had formerly come via the Tennessee to New 
Orleans. It was almost gone and the receipts from North 
Alabama were actually less in i860 than in 1845, although 
the crops had grown manifold larger. The lead trade of 
the Upper Mississippi had been diverted from the river by 
the railroads. At Cincinnati a large portion of the flour 
and grain that had been formerly sent down the river trav- 
eled either up it to Pittsburgh or went direct by rail to 
New York, or by canal to Cleveland, Buffalo, and thence 
by the Hudson. In the twenty years between 1840 and 
i860, during which the competition of river and rail 
had been inaugurated, the production of the Mississippi 
Valley had increased far more rapidly than the receipts at 
New Orleans. The river traffic had increased in the ag- 
gregate, but lost relatively. 

The Mississippi carried a much larger tonnage, but a far 
smaller percentage of the total traffic of the valley. The 
loss was most marked in Western products. Forty years 



152 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

before, these had constituted 58 per cent, of the total re- 
ceipts at New Orleans. In 1859-60 they had fallen to 23 
per cent., although in that period the West had made the 
greatest increase in population and production. What was 
lost here, however, was more than made good in the cotton 
and sugar crops, and the river trade of New Orleans there- 
fore showed no decline but a steady, active, and positive 
advance. 

During all this period '' the levee " of New Orleans, as 
the river landing of that city was called, was the wonder 
of every visitor. It was beyond doubt the most active com- 
mercial center of the world. Here, side by side, lay the 
steamboats and flatboats of the river, the steamers, ships, 
and numerous ocean vessels. Here the entire business of 
New Orleans and of the greater portion of the valley was 
transacted. The levee was the landing, warehouse, com- 
mercial exchange of half a continent, and the freight 
handled there exceeded that to be seen on any single dock- 
yard of London or Liverpool. 

Report on Internal Commerce of the United States, 
188/, pp. 199, 205, 214-15. 50th Congress, ist Session, 
House Executive Documents, No. 6, Part H, Vol. 20. 

Questions 

What place did the flatboats hold in Mississippi commerce after 
the steamboat had absorbed a large portion of the traffic? {See, 
also, Selection, XXIII.) How did the increase of cotton-growing 
in the valley increase the prosperity of New Orleans? Show how 
New Orleans became the distributing and financial center of the 
cotton country. How did manufacturing in the Ohio Valley give 
more business to New Orleans? What prophecies were made of the 
growth of New Orleans? What was her commercial position in the 
Valley in i860? How did the railroads affect the carrying of produce 
to New Orleans from Alabama? From the Ohio Valley? Why is 
not New Orleans a more important market for the railroad-carried 
produce of the old Northwest? In answering consider the com- 
parative advantages of proximity to Europe of New Orleans and 
New York. What position should you think New Orleans should 
hold to-day in our trade with South America? How will the 
Panama Canal increase her opportunities for development? 



THE NEW WEST 153 

XXVI 

THE REAPER 

The marvelous development of the great West and especially 
its agricultural development has been made possible by the use 
of machmery. When men first moved into the Mississippi Val- 
ley there was plenty of fertile inviting land; but without a plen- 
tiful supply of laborers to do the work of harvesting, it was use- 
less for one farmer to sow many acres. The invention of the 
reaper, which could do the work of many men, was therefore 
an event of immense significance in the expansion of American 
agriculture. It had, moreover, other effects; the farmer could 
dispense with the laborers which he might otherwise have 
needed and they could turn to the villages and cities and help 
in the development of manufacturing and trade. Cyrus Hall 
McCormick is a typical example of those inventive, clever men, 
to whom the needs and the spirit of a new country offered 
stimulus and opportunity. 

As early as 1809 he (Robert McCormick) began to de- 
vote much time in efforts to devise a reaping machine, 
and appears to have spasmodically worked upon his plan 
through upwards of a score of years — 1816 being gen- 
erally ascribed as the year in which the attention of his 
neighbors first became attracted to the enterprise. Various 
cutting mechanisms were tried by Robert McCormick. . . . 
But none of these schemes was found to be practical, and 
after a final discouraging test in the early harvest of 183 1 
he concluded to abandon the project as an unsuccessful 
experiment. 

Cyrus Hall McCormick, Robert's eldest son in a family 
of eight children, was born at Walnut Grove, February 15, 
1809, the very year to which is commonly assigned the 
latter's first attempt at a mechanical reaper. The boy was 
carefully reared to be a practical farmer; but it was evi- 
dent that in his case, as in his father's, the carpenter and 
blacksmith shops were more attractive to him than the 



154 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Open fields. He had clearly inherited his parent's inven- 
tive qualities, and was destined far to surpass him — in- 
deed, to become one of the greatest figures in the industrial 
history of the world. 

When but fifteen years of age this ingenious Scotch-Irish 
lad made a distinct improvement in the grain cradle. In 
the same year he, like his father, invented a hillside plow ; 
a few seasons later supplanting it with a self-sharpening, 
horizontal plow, claimed to be the first of this character to 
be introduced. 

But Cyrus McCormick's greatest contribution to agri- 
cultural economics was yet to come. The father's reaping 
machine, standing outside the blacksmith shop on the 
home farm, had from the year of his birth been to him a 
familiar and alluring spectacle. His imagination was early 
fired with a desire to conquer the great practical difficulties 
of mechanical reaping. When the father finally acknowl- 
edged himself defeated, Cyrus took up the problem on his 
own account. Later in that same summer of 1831, when 
but twenty-two years of age, young McCormick con- 
structed a machine essentially unlike any mechanism pro- 
posed by his father or any others who had before under- 
taken the task. He immediately demonstrated by practical 
tests that the successful type had thus been created ; and 
he never departed from that type, in conformity wherewith 
all success in this art has since proceeded. 

The immense significance of this event may be realized 
when we remember that since man began to practice the 
arts of agriculture, the grain harvest has been one of his 
chiefest concerns. There is nearly always abundant time 
in which to plant and to cultivate ; but from its having to 
be cut when in a certain stage of ripeness, at the risk of 
losing the crop, the harvesting of grain is confined to a 
few days — generally not to exceed ten. The amount of 
grain, therefore, which a husbandman may successfully 
raise, obviously is dependent on the quantity which he may 
garner with the means available during this brief season. 



THE NEW WEST 155 

Throughout the long centuries in which the primitive sickle 
was the only harvesting implement, it was possible for a 
man to cut half an acre per day ; thus production was limited 
to about five acres for each harvester — enough for the 
immediate needs of the people of the district, but insuf- 
ficient for considerable export to distant non-agricultural 
communities. . . . 

By 1844 the reaper was becoming widely known, 
and won general admiration because of its workmanlike 
success. A letter in the Washington National Intelli- 
gencer, dated at Lynchburg, Virginia, November 8 of that 
year, refers to a trial near Amherst Court House. " All 
were highly gratified, and many would linger and follow it 
around the field to admire and witness its neat, rapid, and 
perfect performance." The price of the machine at that 
time appears to have been $100 if payable in the harvest, 
but $106 if payment were deferred for four months; and 
its cutting capacity was warranted at " sixteen acres a day 
when properly attended." After the close of the Vir- 
ginia harvest of 1844, the inventor personally conducted 
field trials and introduced his reaper in western New York, 
Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri. This expedition 
opened his eyes to the fact that " while reapers were lux- 
uries in Virginia, they were a necessity in Ohio, Illinois, 
and on the great plains of the West." The broad virgin 
prairies of the trans-Allegheny were seen to be the natural 
market of a mechanism which was revolutionizing agri- 
culture by breaking down those rigid limitations upon the 
production of man's chiefest food that had fettered the 
world since husbandry began. . . . 

In rugged New England, the land of small farms, hus- 
bandry is at best carried on by toilsome methods ; modern 
inventions can do comparatively little to broaden the field 
of agricultural possibilities. In the Middle Atlantic States, 
with their wide stretches of level land, a quicker soil, and a 
more genial climate, grain growing is a fairly profitable 
industry. Yet even here, the problem of carrying on ex- 



156 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

tended agricultural operations has been far less pressing 
than in the vast region of the trans-Allegheny. In the 
days when settlements were first being planted in the Mid- 
dle West, the scarcity of farm labor and the difficulties of 
transportation greatly retarded growth. The opening of 
the Erie Canal, in 1825, and subsequent improvements in 
other canals, highways, and railroads, solved the transpor- 
tation problem ; but that of agricultural labor was still of 
prime importance. 

The half billion fertile acres in the upper Mississippi 
Valley, practically a fourth of the total land surface of the 
United States, are especially adapted to cereal culture. 
But although opened to cultivation largely during the first 
third of the nineteenth century — and freely offered to 
settlers by the Federal Government under a liberal land 
policy — the vast area of the Old Northwest could not at 
first be utilized to its fullest capacity so long as farm im- 
plements were crude and the supply of labor was limited. 
Fortunately, this remarkable extension of the area of cul- 
tivation was not long hampered by the slow development 
incident to primitive methods of agriculture ; the reaper 
came in the nick of time. . . . 

Everything depended upon the reaper — for until the 
grain crop, restricted to a ten days' harvest, could be 
quickly and mechanically gathered, there was little need of 
improved methods of sowing and cultivating, for which 
processes there is nearly always ample season. ... So 
soon, however, as this, the greatest of all agricultural prob- 
lems, was solved to the satisfaction of the inventor, there 
was no further hesitation. Not only the reaper, but every 
manner of farm implement, naturally following in its wake, 
exhibited a phenomenal improvement. . . . 

The effect upon American agriculture was immediate 
and profound. The Patent Report for 1844 indicated 
a widespread interest in the new implements, which were 
cordially welcomed, especially in the West, where their 
need had been most keenly felt — for the tide of New 



THE NEW WEST 157 

England and Middle West pioneers was now ready to in- 
vade the prairies, and their conquest was rendered possible 
only by labor-saving devices. In order profitably to use 
this ingenious machinery, many large farmers were leav- 
ing their timber lands and moving into the timberless levels, 
where roots, stumps, rocks, and steep hillsides did not in- 
terfere with mechanical mowers, reapers, and rakers. By 
1846 the period of hand labor was plainly seen to be pass- 
ing. Horse power was now fast becoming the dominant 
factor upon the farm. 

The national and the state agricultural societies, state 
boards of agriculture, and farmer's institutes did their ut- 
most to stimulate interest in rural machinery and to en- 
courage its invention. Great trials of all manner of im- 
plements were held, especially during the ten years previ- 
ous to the outbreak of the War of Secession — such trials 
as we have seen Cyrus H. McCormick attending, keenly 
watching the paths along which lay the success of his 
reaper. The greatest popular concern was, very naturally, 
in machinery for cultivating and harvesting grain: we 
read that during the nine years ending with i860 no less 
than 2,233 patents were granted for inventions relating to 
cereal culture. Despite the expense of these modern de- 
vices — in 1852, the price of a McCormick reaper in Il- 
linois and Wisconsin was $130 — farmers purchased 
freely ; and from 1855 forward, the several varieties of 
reaping machine then in vogue were bought as rapidly as 
they could be turned out of the factories. . . . 

It would lead us far beyond the necessary limits of this 
sketch, fully to emphasize the immense economic influence 
which the reaping machine exercised upon the conduct of 
the War of Secession by the northern States. In June, 
1 861, Edwin M. Stanton delivered an address eulogizing 
Cyrus H. McCormick. ..." The reaper is to the North," 
he said, " what slavery is to the South. By taking the 
places of regiments of young men in he Western harvest 
fields, it releases them to do battle for the Union at the 



158 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

front, and at the same time keeps up the supply of bread 
for the nation and the nation's armies." 

The Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 
1862 asserts that owing to the absence of so many farm 
laborers at the front, it would have been quite impossible 
to harvest the wheat crop for that year, had it not been for 
the increased use of mechanical reapers, each of which ef- 
fected a saving of the labor of five men. 

Notwithstanding the enormous draught of recruits from 
our rural districts, to fight in the armies of the Union, 
agricultural operations could still not only be carried on 
by the North, and in numberless instances by mere youths, 
but the product itself was meanwhile substantially in- 
creased. Indeed, although the great struggle appreciably 
lessened invention in every other line of endeavor, the 
number of patents for improvements to grain harvesters 
was normally maintained. . . . 

Upon the declaration of peace between the warring 
States, vast numbers of discharged Union soldiers went 
into the West, to take up homes under the military home- 
stead law. Abundant land awaited settlement as late as 
1880. The young man of the Central States found the 
prospect of acquiring a farm for himself more inviting than 
the return to the life of an agricultural renter or laborer. 
By the extensive use of agricultural machinery the center 
of cereal production has been kept well in advance of the 
center of our population. William H. Seward once 
claimed that the McCormick reaper had extended the 
American frontier at the rate of thirty miles each 
year. ... As each new region in the Middle West — or, 
in time, the trans-Mississippi — was opened to settlement, 
aggressive men promptly invaded the new area, engaging 
in cereal culture upon a cumulative scale, which within the 
past three decades has become vast. Thus, while the 
trend in this country has been largely toward the develop- 
ment of the cities at the expense of the rural districts, the 
yield of our crops has kept pace with the urban growth. 



THE NEW WEST 159 

Socially, economically, and politically, the effect has been 
far-reaching and revolutionary. The vast levels of the 
Northwest have become the chief seat of our agricultural 
production, and the center of political power in the United 
States. The new instruments of labor have everywhere 
reduced to a minimum the old-time drudgery of the farm; 
the storm and stress period of pioneer life has become a 
matter of history. By bringing to them this opportunity 
for larger prosperity and leisure, agricultural machinery 
doubtless saved the farmers of the West from sinking into 
a peasant class. With prosperity and leisure, came a taste 
for culture and the consequent development of academies, 
colleges, and universities. The farmer on his broad west- 
ern acres is in considerable measure independent of the 
exorbitant wages formerly demanded by men who worked 
only during the harvest season ; he is industrious, intelli- 
gent, effective, has a wide outlook on life, and takes a high 
stand among his fellows. The humblest urban wage- 
earner had in turn had his benefit; the supply of food has 
been maintained, scarcity has been prevented, and prices 
are lessened; white wheat, now raised and harvested far 
more economically than before, can be obtained as cheaply 
as once were the coarser grains, and is now common to all. 
The introduction of improved agricultural machinery has 
made possible, also, the great flouring industries of the Old 
Northwest ; and has promoted the prosperity of great rail- 
way systems that gridiron the prairies and plains, and of 
monster fleets of vessels that plow the Great Lakes, all 
engaged in transporting to market the products of the 
farm. 

Nor are these advantages confined to America. Wher- 
ever, throughout the world, have gone the reaper and its 
lusty following of labor-saving inventions, life is easier 
than it was before, and rustic man is no longer slavishly 
bound to the grinding burden of the sickle and the hoe. 
His labor has been vastly more productive, and this means 
better things in every walk of life. 



l6o READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

R. G. Thwaites: Cyrus Hall McConnick, In Proceed- 
ings of the Wisconsin Historical Society, 1908, pp. 234- 
259, passim. 

Questions 

How is the amount of grain that can be grown limited by the 
shortness of the harvest season? Under a system of harvesting by 
hand, would it be possible for a farming community to grow very 
much more grain than would be required to feed farm laborers? 
Would it be possible under such a system to spare many people from 
farm work to be employed in manufacturing? If few people were 
employed in manufacturing, could many of our modern manufactured 
conveniences be enjoyed by people in general? What is the con- 
nection between the growth of modern cities and the development 
of the farming region? Explain why the reaper found its greatest 
usefulness in the West. How did it aid in building up the Mississippi 
Valley? How far did its usefulness depend on the existence of 
some means for transporting the grain raised to market? How did 
the reaper assist the North in the Civil War by setting men free 
to enter the Union armies, and by bringing riches to the men of the 
North? How has the improved agricultural machinery of to-day 
saved farmers from drudgery? How has this benefited them in- 
tellectually ? 

XXVII 
SLAVERY IN THE NEW SOUTHWEST 

The follovi^ing selection, which is taken from an eulogistic 
biography of Colonel Thomas Dabney, a Mississippi planter, 
shows slavery at its best — as regards both the economic ef- 
ficiency of the system, and the relation between master and 
slaves. The extract illustrates a thing not very easy to under- 
stand — how old established slave-holding families, living lives 
of elegance in the older Slave States, moved into the compara- 
tively frontier States of the lower South; and there speedily 
established the slave system of production and began again a 
life of comfort and luxury similar to that they had left in the 
older States. The date of Colonel Dabney's migration was 
about 1835. 

About the year 1835 ^ great many Virginians were in- 
duced to remove their families to the far South. For 



THE NEW WEST l6i 

several reasons Thomas began to consider the expediency 
of moving out to the then new country. He was consid- 
ered one of the most successful wheat and tobacco farmers 
in his part of the State. But the expensive style of living 
in Gloucester began to be a source of serious anxiety. He 
knew that with a young and growing family to educate and 
provide for the difficulty would be greater each year. He 
felt also the increasing difficulty of giving to his negroes the 
amount of nourishing food that he considered necessary 
for laboring people. In view of these facts, he made up 
his mind that he must leave his home in Virginia for a new 
one in the cotton-planting States. 

Thomas Dabney went through a large part of Alabama, 
Louisiana, and Mississippi, looking at the country before 
deciding on a body of land in Hinds County, Mississippi. 
He succeeded in purchasing four thousand acres from half 
a dozen small farmers. . . . 

When the southern move was decided on, Thomas called 
his servants together and announced to them his intention 
to remove, with his family, to Mississippi. He further 
went on to say that he did not mean to take one unwilling 
servant with him. His plan was to offer to buy all hus- 
bands and wives, who were connected with his negroes, at 
the owners' prices, or he should, if his people preferred, 
sell those whom he owned to any master or mistress whom 
they might choose. No money difficulty should stand in the 
way. . . . 

Mammy Harriet says of this time, " Marster was good 
all de time. He do all he could to comfort he people. 
When he was gittin' ready to move to Mississippi, he call 
'em all up, an' tell 'em dat he did not want anybody to 
foller him who was not willin'. He say, all could stay in 
Figinny, an' dey could choose dey own marsters to stay 
wid. Ebery one o' he own, and all who b'long to de odder 
members o' de fambly who was wid him, say dey want to 
foller him, 'ceptin' 'twas two old people, ole grayheaded 
people, who was too ole to trabble. An' dey was de onli- 
13 



l62 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

est ones leff behind on dat plantation an' dey did cry so 
much I did feel so sorry for dem. . . ." 

The journey was made with so much care and fore- 
thought that not a case of serious illness occurred on the 
route. The white families were quartered at night, if 
practicable, in the houses that they found along the way. 
Tents were provided for the negroes. The master him- 
self, during the entire journey, did not sleep under a roof. 

The weather w^as perfect : no heavy rains fell during 
the two months. . . . 

I give here Mammy Harriet's account of the journey. 
..." We leff in September, when dey was pullin' fod- 
der, an' we git to Mississippi three weeks to Christmas. 
. . . On dat road I come to somethin' what I nebber see 
before; it 'twas a log town. All de houses was made out 
o' logs ; all 'ceptin' de court-house. Dat was weather- 
boarded. I dunno whar 'twas. I nebber 'quire 'bout 
dat. . . . 

" Marster was so good to us. He do eberything on dat 
journey dat was for our good. 

" Marster do all he could to comfort he people. 

" He buy fresh meat, salt fish, eberything. Ef he see 
a turnip-patch or cabbages or apples or 'taters, he say, ' Go 
on, see if you can get these things.' Sometimes dey gib 
'em to us, sometimes we buy. . . ." 

Thomas [Thomas Dabney] was misunderstood and mis- 
judged by the people in Mississippi by whom he found 
himself surrounded. The plainer classes in Virginia, like 
those in England from whom they were descended, recog- 
nized the difference between themselves and the higher 
classes, and did not aspire to social equality. But in Missis- 
sippi the tone was different. They resented anything like 
superiority in breeding. . . . 

It was the custom among the small farmers in his neigh- 
bourhood to call on each other to assist when one of them 
built his house, usually a log structure. Accordingly, one 
day an invitation came to the newcomer to help a neigh- 



THE NEW WEST 163 

bour to " raise " his house. At the appointed time he went 
over with twenty of his men, and he did not leave till the 
last log was in place and the last board nailed on the roof, 
handing over the simple cabin quite completed to the owner. 
This action, which seemed so natural to him, was a serious 
offense to the recipient, and to his regret, he was sent for 
to no more " house-raisings." ^ On another occasion, a 
small farmer living a few miles from him got " in the 
grass,'' as the country people express it when the grass 
has gotten ahead of the young cotton plants and there is 
danger of their being choked by it. Again Thomas went 
over with twenty men, and in a few hours the field was 
brought to perfect order. The man said that if Colonel 
Dabney had taken hold of a plow and worked by his side 
he would have been glad to have his help, but to see him 
sitting up on his horse with his gloves on directing his 
negroes how to work was not to his taste. He heard a 
long time after these occurrences that he could have soothed 
their wounded pride if he had asked them to come over to 
help him to raise his cabins. But he could not bring himself 
to call on two or three poor white men to work among his 
servants when he had no need of help. 

Susan Dabney Smedes : A Southern Planter, pp. 7-15; 
29-30. London, 1889. 

1 The "house-raising" was the social event of the frontier. The 
man whose house was to be raised provided refreshments such as 
liquor for those who came to help; and all who came worked side 
by side all day at the house, leaving it completed at nightfall. It 
summed up all the spirit of the frontier — the neighborly willingness 
to help a newcomer get on his feet and the sense of the true dignity 
and worth of labor that set all to working side by side on perfect 
equality. It is only by understanding this that one can reach the 
depth of Colonel Dabney's offending in patronizingly bringing over 
a gang of slaves to work side by side with his neighbors on work 
he would not himself set his hands to. 



l64 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 



Questions 

How did Colonel Dabney get his land in Mississippi? Would 
you judge from the incident that the tendency in Mississippi at this 
period was toward the establishment and development of the small 
farm tilled by free labor or toward the plantation system? Why 
when slavery as a system of labor was so expensive could the big 
plantation grow up in the new West? This is a question not easily 
answered ; but we must take into consideration that slavery was 
working as advantageously as it possibly could, where the soil 
was fertile and fresh, where land was plentiful, and where cotton 
was the chief or only crop. Tell of the consideration that Colonel 
Dabney showed for the feelings of his servants. What sacrifices 
did he make to avoid separating husbands and wives? Describe as 
far as you can, the way in which the master, his family, and his 
slaves emigrated. Did the writer of the book believe in social 
equality between the large slave-holding planter and the small 
farmer? How did Colonel Dabney offend his neighbors? What 
opinion did these actions show he had of manual work? Would 
such an attitude toward manual labor affect others? Was this a nat- 
ural result of slavery in a community? 



XXVIII 
AN ENGLISHMAN ON AMERICAN TRAVEL 

In the half century that preceded the Civil War patriotic 
Americans were in a state of chronic irritation at the criticism, 
justified and unjustified, that was poured out on the United 
States and all things in it by English travelers. Charles 
Dickens's American Notes is perhaps the best known of these 
books of criticism. The book, from which is quoted the extract 
here given, is perhaps more willing to see the good in Amer- 
ican life than are the great majority of such books. Its 
author was Robert Marryat, officer in the British navy and 
author of fascinating tales of adventure at sea that were many 
of them drawn from his own experience. The selection illus- 
trates the stage of American transportation in which the rail- 
road was replacing the stage-coach. Note the amusing de- 
scription of the necessity for the " cow-catcher " on the Amer- 
ican locomotive, and of " ten minutes for refreshments " stops. 



THE NEW WEST 165 

The American stage-coaches are such as experience has 
found out to be most suitable to the American roads, and 
you have not ridden in them five miles before you long 
for the delightful springing of four horses upon the level 
roads of England. They are something between an Eng- 
lish stage and a French diligence, built with all the panels 
open, on account of the excessive heat of the summer 
months. In wet weather these panels are covered with 
leather aprons, which are fixed on with buttons, a very 
insufficient protection in the winter, as the wind blows 
through the intermediate spaces, whistling into your ears, 
and rendering it more piercing than if all was open. More- 
over, they are no protection against the rain or snow, both 
of which find their way in to you. The coach has three 
seats, to receive nine passengers ; those on the middle seat 
leaning back on a strong and broad leather brace, which runs 
across. This is very disagreeable, as the center passen- 
gers, when the panels are closed, deprive the others of the 
light and air from the windows. But the most disagree- 
able feeling arises from the body of the coach not being 
upon springs, but hung upon leather braces running under 
it and supporting it on each side; and when the roads are 
bad, or you ascend or rapidly descend the pitches (as they 
term short hills), the motion is very similar to that of be- 
ing tossed in a blanket, often throwing you up to the top 
of the coach, so as to flatten your hat — if not your 
head. 

The drivers are very skillful, although they are generally 
young men — indeed often mere boys — for they soon bet- 
ter themselves as they advance in life. Very often they 
drive six in hand ; and, if you are upset, it is generally more 
the fault of the road than the driver. I was upset twice 
in one half -hour when I was travelling in the winter time; 
but the snow was very deep at the time, and no one thinks 
anything of an upset in America. More serious accidents 
do, however, sometimes happen. When I was in New 
Hampshire, a neglected bridge broke down, and precipitated 



l66 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

coach, horses, and passengers into a torrent which flowed 
into the Connecticut river. Some of the passengers were 
drowned. Those who were saved sued the township and 
recovered damages ; but these mischances must be ex- 
pected in a new country. The great annoyance of these 
pubhc conveyances is, that neither the proprietor nor 
driver consider themselves the servants of the public ; a 
stage-coach is a speculation by which as much money is to 
be made as possible by the proprietors ; and as the driver 
never expects or demands a fee from the passengers, they 
or their comforts are no concern of his. The proprietors 
do not consider that they are bound to keep faith with the 
public, nor do they care about any complaints. 

The stages which run from Cincinnati to the eastward 
are very much interfered w^th when the Ohio river is full 
of water, as the travellers prefer the steam-boats; but the 
very moment that the water is so low on the Ohio that the 
steam-boats cannot ascend the river up to Wheeling, double 
the price is demanded by the proprietors of the coaches. 
They are quite regardless as to the opinion or good-will 
of the public ; they do not care for either, all they want is 
their money, and they are perfectly indifferent whether 
you break your neck or not. The great evil arising from 
this state of hostility, as you may almost call it, is the dis- 
regard of life which renders traveUing so dangerous in 
America. You are completely at the mercy of the drivers, 
who are, generally speaking, very good-tempered, but some- 
times quite the contrary; and I have often been amused 
with the scenes which have taken place between them and 
the passengers. As for myself, when the weather per- 
mitted it, I invariably went outside, which the Americans 
seldom do, and was always very good friends with the 
drivers. They are full of local information, and often 
very amusing. There is, however, a great difference in 
the behavior of the drivers of the mails, and coaches which 
are timed by the post-office, and others which are not. If 
beyond his time, the driver is mulcted by the proprietors ; 



THE NEW WEST 167 

and when dollars are in the question, there is an end to 
all urbanity and civility. . . . 

In making my observations upon the rail-road and steam- 
boat travelling in the United States, I shall point out some 
facts with which the reader must be made acquainted. 
The Americans are a restless, locomotive people; whether 
for business or pleasure, they are ever on the move in 
their own country, and they move in masses. There is 
but one conveyance, it may be said, for every class of peo- 
ple, the coach, rail-road, or steam-boat, as well as most of 
the hotels, being open to all ; the consequence is that the 
society is very much mixed — the millionaire, the well-edu- 
cated woman of the highest rank, the senator, the member 
of Congress, the farmer, the emigrant, the swindler, and the 
pick-pocket, are all liable to meet together in the same vehicle 
of conveyance. Some conventional rules were there- 
fore necessary, and those rules have been made by pub- 
lic opinion — a power to which all must submit in America. 
The one most important, and without which it would be 
impossible to travel in such a gregarious way, is an uni- 
versal deference and civility shown to the women, who 
may in consequence travel without protection all over the 
United States without the least chance of annoyance or 
insult. This deference paid to the sex is highly creditable 
to the Americans ; it exists from one end of the Union to 
the other; indeed, in the Southern and more lawless States, 
it is even more chivalric than in the more settled. . . . 

The railroads in America are not so well made as in 
England, and are therefore more dangerous. . . . One 
great cause of disasters is, that the railroads are not fenced 
on the sides, so as to keep the cattle off them, and it appears 
as if the cattle who range the woods are very partial to 
take their naps on the roads, probably from their being 
dryer than the other portions of the soil. It is impossible 
to say how many cows have been cut into atoms by the 
trains in America, but the frequent accidents arising from 



l68 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

these causes have occasioned the Americans to invent a 
sort of shovel, attached to the front of the locomotive, 
which takes up a cow, tossing her off right or left. At 
every fifteen miles of the railroads there are refreshment 
rooms; the cars stop, all the doors are thrown open, and 
out rush the passengers like boys out of school, and crowd 
round the tables to solace themselves with pies, patties, 
cakes, hard-boiled eggs, ham, custards, and a variety of 
railroad luxuries, too numerous to mention. The bell rings 
for departure, in they all hurry with their hands and mouths 
full, and off they go again, until the next stopping place 
induces them to relieve the monotony of the journey by 
masticating without being hungry. . . . 

The American innkeeper ... is still looked upon in the 
light of your host; he and his wife sit at the head of the 
table d'hote at meal times ; when you arrive he greets you 
with a welcome, shaking your hand; if you arrive in com- 
pany with those who know him, you are introduced to 
him ; he is considered on a level with you ; you meet him in 
the most respectable companies, and it is but justice to 
say that, in most instances, they are a very respectable 
portion of society. . . . The respect shown to the master 
of a hotel induces people of the highest character to em- 
bark in the profession ; the continual stream of travellers 
which pours through the country gives sufficient support by 
moderate profits, to enable the innkeeper to abstain from 
excessive charges ; the price of everything is known by all, 
and no more is charged to the President of the United 
States than to other people. Everyone knows his ex- 
penses ; there is no surcharge, and fees to waiters are volun- 
tary, and never asked for. At first I used to examine the 
bill when presented, but latterly I looked only at the sum 
total at the bottom and paid it at once, reserving the ex- 
amination of it for my leisure, and I never in one instance 
found that I had been imposed upon. 

Capt. Marryat: Second Series of a Diary in America, 
pp. 3-5, 7-8, 9-10, 32-33. Collins, Philadelphia, 1840. 



THE NEW WEST 169 



Questions 

Describe the American stage-coach. How did it differ from the 
English? What complaints are made of the drivers and proprietors 
of stage-coaches? What American conventionalities made it safe 
for women to travel unescorted? How did the safety of travel on 
American railroads compare with that on English? What reason 
does Marryat assign for this? Do you know what the comparative 
degree of safety in travel is to-day? What position did Marryat 
find the inn keeper holding in American society as compared with 
European ? 

XXIX 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPORTATION ON 
WESTERN RIVERS 

Michel Chevalier (1806-1879) was a French economist and 
expert on questions of transportation. He was one of the 
earliest advocates of a transisthmian canal. The book from 
which the following extract is taken is a translation of a work 
written by Chevalier while he w^as on a mission of investigation 
for France in this country (1834-1836). 

. . . All the commerce of the West was carried on by the 
Ohio and the Mississippi, which is, indeed, still, and prob- 
ably always will be, the most economical route for bulky 
objects. The western boatmen descended the rivers with 
their com and salt-meat in flat-boats, like the Seine coal- 
boats ; the goods of Europe and the produce of the Antilles, 
were slowly transported up the rivers by the aid of the oar 
and the sail, the voyage consuming at least one hundred 
days, and sometimes two hundred. . . . The commerce of 
the West, was, therefore, necessarily very limited and the 
inhabitants, separated from the rest of the world, had all 
the rudeness of the forest. It was in this period and this 
state of manners, that the popular saying, which describes 
the Kentuckian as half horse, half alligator, had its origin. 
The number of boats, which made the voyage up and down 
once a year, did not exceed ten, measuring on an average 



I/O READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

about 100 tons; other small boats, averaging about 30 tons 
measurement, carried on the trade between different points 
on the rivers, beside which there were numerous flat-boats, 
which did not make a return voyage. Freight from New 
Orleans to Louisville or Cincinnati was six, seven, and 
even nine cents a pound. At present (1836) the passage 
from Louisville to New Orleans is made in about 8 or 
9 days, and the return voyage in 10 or 12, and freight is 
often less than half a cent a pound from the latter to the 
former. 

In 181 1, the first steamboat in the West, built by Fulton, 
started from Pittsburgh to New Orleans ; it bore the name 
of the latter city. But such are the difficulties in the navi- 
gation of the Ohio and Mississippi, and such was the 
imperfection of the first boats, that it was nearly six years 
before a steamboat ascended from New Orleans, and then 
not to Pittsburgh, but to Louisville, 600 miles below it. 
The first voyage was made in twenty-five days, and it 
caused a great stir in the West ; a public dinner was given 
to Captain Shreve, who had solved the problem. Then 
and not before, was the revolution completed in the con- 
dition of the West, and the hundred-day boats were sup- 
planted. In 18 1 8, the number of steamboats was 20, 
making an aggregate of 3,642 tons; in 1819 the whole 
number that had been built was 40, of which thirty- 
three were still running; in 1821, there were ']2 in 
actual service. In that year the Car of Commerce, Cap- 
tain Pierce, made the passage from New Orleans, to 
Shawneetown, a little below Louisville, in 10 days. In 
1825, after fourteen years of trials and experiments, the 
proper proportion between the machinery and the boats 
was finally settled. In 1827, the Teciimseh ascended from 
New Orleans to Louisville in eight days and two hours. 
In 1829, the number of boats was 200, with a total tonnage 
of 35,000 tons ; in 1832, there were 220 boats making an 
aggregate of 40,000 tons, and at present there are 240, 
measuring 64,000 tons. 



THE NEW WEST 171 

Michel Chevalier: Society, Manners and Politics in the 
United States, pp. 214-216. Translation. Boston, 1839. 

Questions 

Describe the trade of the Mississippi River as it was carried on 
in the days of flat boats. How did the steamers cut down the time 
of a voyage? How did they lower freight rates? Illustrate the 
growth of steamboat traffic on the Mississippi? Compare Selections 
XXni and XXV. 



PART V 

THE MOVEMENT TO THE FAR WEST 

Between 1845 ^"d 1850 the United States acquired and be- 
gan the political organization of a vast stretch of western ter- 
ritory. We obtained a definite title to a part of Oregon ter- 
ritory by treaty with England, annexed Texas, made war on 
Mexico in defense of the extreme boundary claims of Texas, 
and exacted, as the price of peace, California and New Mexico. 
Settlement went hand in hand with acquisition. Parkman pic- 
tures for us the immigrants pushing into Oregon, and Mor- 
mons on the point of a movement to Great Salt Lake. Years 
before the gold seekers developed California, American fur 
traders and trappers had crossed the mountains, and American 
ships had rounded Cape Horn in quest of the trade of the Pa- 
cific Coast. Santa Fe was united commercially with the United 
States by the caravans that passed over the Santa Fe trail. 
The commercial connection of these lands of the Far West with 
the United States made it easier to bring them under the Amer- 
ican flag; just as the American settlement of Texas was the 
natural precursor of its independence from Mexico and its an- 
nexation to the United States. The first stage of the American 
invasion of the Far West — the advance of the trapper, fur 
trader and Rocky Mountain explorer — is here only hinted at in 
Gregg's account of Jedediah Smith. The Santa Fe trade and 
the movement to Utah and to Oregon are described in the ex- 
tracts following from Parkman and Gregg. The settlement of 
California in early days is given in the sketch of San Francisco. 
A later phase of the development of the Far West, when the 
" Great American Desert," was made use of for cattle ranches 
will be illustrated by a later selection. 



172 



THE MOVEMENT TO THE FAR WEST 173 

XXX 

THE SANTA FE TRADE 

The traffic across the western plains had reached consid- 
erable importance before the railroad train took the place of 
the caravan of prairie schooners. The extract here given is 
taken from a book describing in detail the author's journeys 
over the Santa Fe trail, the first of which he made as early as 
1831. His interesting narrative is interspersed with anecdotes 
of men famous in the trade, accounts of the common practices 
on the trail, and descriptions of conditions on the frontier and 
in the Mexican territory. 

The town of Franklin on the Missouri river . . . seems 
truly to have been the cradle of our trade; and, in conjunc- 
tion with several neighboring towns, continued for many 
years to furnish the greater number of these adventurous 
traders. Even subsequently to 1831, many wagons have been 
fitted out and started from this interior section. But as the 
navigation of the Missouri river had considerably advanced 
toward the year 183 1, and the advantages of some point 
of debarkation nearer the western frontier were very evi- 
dent, whereby upwards of a hundred miles of troublesome 
land carriage, over unimproved and often miry roads, might 
be avoided, the new town of Independence,^ but twelve 
miles from the Indian border and two or three south of 
the Missouri River, being the most eligible point, soon be- 
gan to take the lead as a place of debarkation, outfit and 
departure, which in spite of all opposition it has ever since 
maintained. . . . 

As Independence is a point of convenient access (the 
Missouri River being navigable at all times from March 
till November), it has become the general "port of em- 
barkation " for every part of the great western and north- 
ern " prairie ocean." Besides the Santa Fe caravans, most 

lA few miles from Kansas City, Missouri. 



174 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

of the Rocky ^Mountain traders and trappers as well as 
emigrants to Oregon take this town in their route. Dur- 
ing the season of departure, therefore, it is a place of much 
bustle and active business. . . . 

. . . Oxen having been employed by ]\Iajor Riley for 
the baggage wagons of the escort which was furnished the 
caravan of 1829, they were found to the surprise of the 
traders, to perform almost equal to mules. Since that time, 
upon an average, about balf of the wagons in these expedi- 
tions have been drawn by oxen. They possess many ad- 
vantages such as pulling heavier loads than the same num- 
ber of mules particularly through muddy or sandy places ; 
but they generally fall of¥ in strength as the prairie grass 
becomes drier and shorter, and often arrive at their destina- 
tion in a most shocking plight. In this condition I have 
seen them sacrificed at Santa Fe for ten dollars the pair; 
though in more favorable seasons, they sometimes remain 
strong enough to be driven back to the United States the 
same fall. Therefore, although the original cost of a team 
of mules is much greater, the loss ultimately sustained by 
them is considerably less, to say nothing of the comfort 
of being able to travel faster and more at ease. . . . 

It was on the 15th day of May, 1831, and one of the 
brightest and most lovely of all the days in the calendar, 
that our little party set out from Independence. The gen- 
eral rendezvous at Council Grove was our immediate des- 
tination. It is usual for the traders to travel thus far in 
detached parties, and to assemble there for the purpose of 
entering into some kind of organization for mutual security 
and defense during the remainder of the journey. It was 
from thence that the formation of the Caravan was to be 
dated, and the chief interest of our journey to commence : 
therefore, to this point we all looked forward with great 
anxiety. . . . 

The designation of " Council Grove," after all, is per- 
haps the most appropriate that could be given to this place ; 
for we there held a " grand council " at which the respec- 



THE MOVEMENT TO THE FAR WEST 175 

tive claims of the different '* aspirants to office " were con- 
sidered, leaders selected, and a system of government 
agreed upon — as is the standing custom of these promis- 
cuous caravans. One would have supposed that election- 
eering and '' party spirit " would hardly have penetrated 
so far into the wilderness, but so it was. Even in our 
little community we had our " office seekers " and their 
'' political adherents," as earnest and devoted as any of 
the modern school of politicians in the midst of civilization. 
After a great deal of bickering and wordy warfare, how- 
ever, all the " candidates " found it expedient to decline, 
and a gentleman by the name of Stanley, without seeking 
or even desiring the " office," was unanimously proclaimed 
" Captain of the Caravan." The powers of this officer 
were undefined by any " constitutional provision," and con- 
sequently vague and uncertain : orders being only viewed 
as mere requests, they are often obeyed or neglected at 
the caprice of the subordinates. . . . 

But after this comes the principal task of organizing. 
The proprietors are first notified by " proclamation " to 
furnish a list of their men and wagons. The latter are 
generally apportioned into four " divisions," particularly 
when the company is large — and ours consisted of nearly 
a hundred wagons, besides a dozen of dearborns and other 
small vehicles and two small cannons (a four and six 
pounder) each mounted upon a carriage. To each of these 
divisions a " lieutenant " was appointed, whose duty it was 
to inspect every ravine and creek on the route, select the 
best crossings, and superintend what is called in prairie 
parlance, the " forming " of each encampment. . . . 

Upon encamping the wagons are formed into a " hollow 
square" (each division to a side), constituting at once 
an enclosure (or corral) for the animals when needed, 
and for a fortification against the Indians. Not to em- 
barrass this cattle-pen, the camp-fires are all lighted out- 
side of the wagons. . . . 

Captain Sublette and others had started near a month in 



176 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

advance of our company. We had frequently seen their 
trail, and once or twice had received some vague informa- 
tion of their whereabouts through the Indians, but nothing 
satisfactory. Our visitor now informed us that a captain 
of this band had been assassinated by the Indians ; and 
from his description we presumed it to be Capt. Smith,- 
one of the partners — which was afterwards confirmed, 
with many particulars of the adventures of this company. 

Capt. Smith and his companions were new beginners 
in the Santa Fe trade, but, being veteran pioneers of the 
Rocky Mountains, they concluded they could go anywhere ; 
and imprudently set out without a single person in their 
company at all competent to guide them on the route. 
They had some twenty-odd wagons and about eighty men. 
There being a plain track to the Arkansas river, they did 
very well thus far; but from thence to the Cimarron not 
a single trail was to be found save the innumerable buffalo 
paths, with which these plains are furrowed, and which 
are exceedingly perplexing to the bewildered prairie 
traveller. In a great many places which I have observed, 
they have all the appearance of immense highways, over 
which entire armies w^ould seem to have frequently passed. 
They generally lead from one watering place to another; 
but as these reservoirs very often turn out to be dry, the 
thirsty traveller who follows them in search of water, is 
liable to constant disappointment. 

When Capt. Sublette's party entered this arid plain, it 
was parched with drought; and they were doomed to wan- 
der about for several days with all the horrors of a death 
from thirst staring them continually in the face. In this 
perilous situation Capt. Smith resolved at last to pursue 
one of these seductive buffalo paths, in hopes it might lead 
to the margin of some stream or pond. He set out alone : 
for besides the temerity which desperation always inspires, 
he had ever been a stranger to fear ; indeed, he was one of 

2jedediah Smith. 



THE MOVEMENT TO THE FAR WEST 177 

the most undaunted spirits that had ever traversed the 
Rocky ^Mountains ; and if but one-half of what has been 
told of him be true — of his bold enterprises — his perilous 
wanderings — his skirmishings with the savages — his hair- 
breadth escapes, etc. — he would surely be entitled to one 
of the most exalted seats in the Olympus of prairie my- 
thology. But, alas ! unfortunate Capt. Smith ! after hav- 
ing so often dodged the arrow and eluded the snare of the 
wily mountain Indian, little could he have thought, while 
jogging along under a scorching sun, that his bones were 
destined to bleach upon those arid sands ! He had al- 
ready wandered many miles away from his comrades, when, 
on turning over an eminence, his eyes were joyfully 
greeted with the appearance of a small stream meandering 
through the valley that spread before him. It was the 
Cimarron. He hurried forward to slake the fire of his 
parched lips — but imagine his disappointment, at finding 
in the channel only a bed of dry sand ! With his hands, 
however, he soon scratched out a basin a foot or two deep, 
into which the water slowly oozed from the saturated sand. 
While with his head bent down, in the effort to quench 
his burning thirst in the fountain, he was pierced by the 
arrows of a gang of Comanches, who were lying in wait for 
him ! Yet he struggled bravely to the last ; and as the 
Indians themselves have since related, killed two or three 
of their party before he was overpowered. . . . 

A few miles before reaching the city, the road again 
emerges into an open plain. Ascending a table ridge, we 
spied in an extended valley to the northwest occasional 
groups of trees, skirted with verdant corn and wheat fields, 
with here and there a square, block-like protuberance reared 
in the midst. A little further, and just ahead of us to the 
north, irregular clusters of the same opened to our view. 
*' Oh, we are approaching the suburbs ! " thought I on per- 
ceiving the cornfields, and what I supposed to be brick- 
kilns scattered in every direction. These and other ob- 
servations of the same nature becoming audible, a friend 
13 



178 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

at my elbow said, " It is true those are heaps of unburnt 
bricks, nevertheless they are houses — this is the city of 
Santa Fe.". . . 

The arrival produced a great deal of bustle and excite- 
ment among the natives. "Los Americanos!'' "Los car- 
ros!'' — "La entrada de la caravanal" were to be heard 
on every direction ; and crowds of women and boys flocked 
around to see the newcomers ; while crowds of leperos 
hung about as usual to see what they could pilfer. . . . 
Each wagoner must tie a bran new " cracker " to the lash 
of his whip ; for, on driving through the streets and the 
pla^a publica, everyone strives to outvie his comrades in 
the dexterity with which he flourishes this favorite badge 
of his authority. 

Our wagons were soon discharged in the ware-rooms of 
the custom-house. . . . The derechos de arancel (tariff 
imposts) of Mexico are extremely oppressive, averaging 
about a hundred per cent, upon the United States cost of 
an ordinary " Santa Fe assortment." Those on cotton 
textures are particularly so. According to the Arancel of 
1837 (and it was still heavier before) all plain-wove cot- 
tons, whether white or printed, pay twelve and a half cents 
duty per vara, besides the derecho de consumo (consump- 
tion duty), which brings it up to at least fifteen. But it 
is scarcely necessary to add that there are believed to be 
very few ports in the Republic at which these rigid exac- 
tions are strictly executed. An " arrangement," a com- 
promise, is expected, in which the officers are sure at least 
to provide for themselves. At some ports, a custom has 
been said to prevail of dividing the legal duties into three 
equal parts : one for the officers — a second for the mer- 
chants — the other for the government. 

For a few years, Gov. Armijo of Santa Fe established a 
tariff of his own, entirely arbitrary, exacting five hundred 
dollars for each wagon-load, whether large or small, of fine 
or coarse goods ! Of course this was very advantageous 
to such traders as had large wagons and costly assortments, 



THE MOVEMENT TO THE FAR WEST 179 

while it was no less onerous to those with smaller vehicles 
or coarse heavy goods. As might have been anticipated, 
the traders soon took to conveying their merchandise only 
in the largest wagons, drawn by ten or twelve mules, and 
omitting the coarser and more weighty articles of trade. 
This caused the governor to return to an ad valorem sys- 
tem, though still without regard to the Arancel general of 
the nation. How much of these duties found their way 
into the public treasury, I will not venture to assert. 

The arrival of a caravan at Santa Fe changes the aspect 
of the place at once. Instead of the idleness and stagna- 
tion which its streets exhibited before, one now sees every- 
where the bustle, noise and activity of a lively market 
town. . . . 

Although a fair variety of dry goods, silks, hardware, 
i&c, is to be found in this market, domestic cottons, 
both bleached and brown, constitute the great staple, of 
which nearly equal quantities ought to enter into a " Santa 
Fe assortment." The demand for these goods is such that 
at least one-half of our stocks of merchandise is made up 
of them. However, although they afford a greater nominal 
per centum than many other articles, the profits are reduced 
by their freight and heavy duty. In all the Southern mar- 
kets, where they enter into competition, there is a decided 
preference given to the American manufactures over the 
British, as the former are more heavy and durable. The 
demand for calicoes is also considerable, but this kind of 
goods affords much less profit. The quantity in an assort- 
ment should be about equal to half that of domestics. Cot- 
ton velvets, and drillings (whether bleached, brown or blue, 
and especially the latter), have also been in much request. 
But all the coarser cotton goods, whether shirtings, calicoes 
or drillings, &c., were prohibited by the Arancel of 
1837; and still continue to be with some modifications. 

The administration of the laws in Northern Mexico con- 
stitutes one of the most painful features of her institutions. 



l8o READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Justice, or rather judgments, are a common article of traffic; 
and the hapless litigant who has not the means to soften 
the claws of the alcalde with a " silver unction " is almost 
sure to get severely scratched in the contest, no matter what 
may be the justice of his cause, or the uprightness of his 
character. . . . 

The evil consequences arising from mal-administration 
of justice in New Mexico are most severely felt by for- 
eigners, against whom a strong prejudice exists through- 
out the South. Of these, the citizens of the United States 
are by far the most constant sufferers ; an inevitable result 
of that sinister feeling with which the " rival republic " 
views the advancement and superiority of her more indus- 
trious neighbors. It is a notorious fact that while the Eng- 
lish are universally treated with comparative consideration 
and respect, the Americans residing in the southern parts 
of the republic are frequently taunted with the effeminacy 
of their government and its want of decision. . . . 

Few men, perhaps, have done more to jeopard the in- 
terests of American traders, or to bring the American 
character itself into contempt than Armijo, the present ar- 
bitrary governor of New Mexico. . . . 

With a view of oppressing our merchants. Gov. Armijo 
had, as early as 1839, issued a decree exempting all the na- 
tives from the tax imposed on storehouses, shops, etc., 
throwing the whole burden of imposts upon foreigners 
and naturalized citizens ; a measure clearly, and un- 
equivocally at variance with the treaties and stipulations 
entered into between the United States and Mexico. A 
protest was presented without effect; when our consul, 
finding all remonstrances useless, forwarded a memorial 
to the American Minister at Mexico, who, although the 
vital interests of American citizens were at stake, deemed 
the affair of too little importance, perhaps, and therefore 
appears to have paid no attention to it. But this system 
of levying excessive taxes upon foreigners, is by no means 
an original invention of Governor Armijo, In 1835, thq 



THE MOVEMENT TO THE FAR WEST i8i 

government of Chihuahua having levied a contribucion de 
guerra for raising means to make war on the savages, who 
were laying waste the surrounding country, foreign mer- 
chants, with an equal disregard for their rights and the 
obligations of treaties, were taxed twenty-five dollars each 
per month while the native merchants, many of whom 
possessed large haciendas, with thousands of stock, for 
the especial protection of which these taxes were chiefly 
imposed, paid only from five to ten dollars each. Remon- 
strances were presented to the governor, but in vain. In 
his official reply, that functionary declared, " Que el gobi- 
erno cree arreglado el reparto de siis respectivas contribu- 
ciones" (the government believes your respective contri- 
butions in accordance with justice) ; which concluded the 
correspondence and the Americans paid their twenty-five 
dollars per month. 

J. Gregg: Commerce of the Prairies. H. G. Langley, 
Xew York, 1844. Vol. I, pp. 32-39, 44-46, 62, 91-93, 109- 
114, 226-y, 232. 

Questions 

What made Independence a valuable gateway to the Far West? 
How did the Santa Fe caravans organize for the passage of the 
desert? What dangers in the passage of the desert does the story 
of Captain Smith suggest? Describe the appearance of the town 
of Santa Fe. What were the Mexican customs duties? How 
strictly were they enforced? How did officials connive at their 
evasion? How did corrupt and arbitrary officials annoy American 
traders? Do you know whether anythmg of this attitude of 
Mexicans toward Americans survives in Mexico to-day? What 
complaints does Gregg make with regard to the laxness with which 
American officials maintained the rights of American citizens? 
Would this suggest to you that the attitude of the United States 
toward Mexico in 1846 was one of wholly unjustified aggression? 
What sort of goods were in demand in Santa Fe? 



l82 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

XXXI 

THE OREGON TRAIL 

In 1846, Francis Parkman, better known as the great histo- 
rian of New France, made a journey along the " Oregon Trail " 
as a young man in search of adventure. The book recounting 
his experiences is a valuable record of the life and scenes in 
the Far West in the days when emigrants, led by the accounts 
of marvelously fertile lands in the Columbia Valley, were pass- 
ing over the desolate Great Plains and the Rockies; when the 
Mormons, driven out of the settled States of the Mississippi 
Valley were beginning the westward movement that was to 
take them to Great Salt Lake. Independence, as we have seen 
in a previous selection, was the headquarters of the Santa Fe 
trade, which had been going on for some years, as well as of the 
emigrants just beginning to push over the Rockies in consider- 
able numbers. 

Last spring, 1846, was a busy season in the City of St. 
Louis. Not only were emigrants from every part of the 
country preparing for the journey to Oregon and Cali- 
fornia, but an unusual number of traders were making 
ready their wagons and outfits for Santa Fe. The hotels 
were crowded, and the gunsmiths and saddlers were kept 
constantly at work in providing arms and equipments for 
the different parties of travellers. Steamboats were leav- 
ing the levee and passing up the Missouri, crowded with 
passengers on their way to the frontier. 

In one of these, the Radnor, since snagged and lost, my 
friend and relative, Ouincy Adams Shaw, and myself, left 
St. Louis on the 28th of April, on a tour of curiosity and 
amusement to the Rocky Mountains. The boat was loaded 
until the water broke alternately over her guards. Her 
upper deck was covered with large wagons of a peculiar 
form, for the Santa Fe trade, and her hold was crammed 
with goods for the same destination. There was also the 
equipments and provisions of a party of Oregon emigrants, 



THE MOVEMENT TO THE FAR WEST 183 

a band of mules and horses, piles of saddles and harness, 
and a multitude of nondescript articles, indispensable on 
the prairies. . . . 

The passengers on board the Radnor corresponded with 
her freight. In her cabin were Santa Fe traders, gamblers, 
speculators, and adventurers of various descriptions, and 
her steerage was crowded with Oregon emigrants, " moun- 
tain men," ^ negroes, and a party of Kanzas Indians who 
had been on a visit to St. Louis. 

Thus laden the boat struggled upward for seven or eight 
days against the rapid current of the Missouri, grating 
upon snags, and hanging for two or three hours at a time 
upon sand-bars. We entered the mouth of the Missouri in 
a drizzling rain, but the weather soon became clear, and 
showed distinctly the broad and turbid river, with its eddies, 
its sand-bars, its ragged islands and forest-covered shores. 
The ^Missouri is constantly changing its course; wearing 
away its banks on one side, while it forms new ones on the 
other. Its channel is continually shifting. Islands are 
formed and then washed away, and while the old forests 
on one side are undermined and swept ofif, a young growth 
springs up from the new soil upon the other. With all 
these changes, the water is so charged with mud and sand 
that, in spring, it is perfectly opaque, and in a few minutes 
deposits a sediment an inch thick in the bottom of a tum- 
bler. The river was now high ; but when we descended in 
the autumn it was fallen very low, and all the secrets of its 
treacherous shallows were exposed to view. It was fright- 
ful to see the dead and broken trees, thick-set as a military 
abattis, firmly imbedded in the sand, and all pointing down 
stream, ready to impale any unhappy steamboat that at 
high water should pass over them. 

In five or six days we began to see signs of the great 
western movement that was taking place. Parties of emi- 
grants with their tents and wagons were encamped on open 

1 Trappers and fur traders of the Rocky Mountains. 



l84 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

spots near the bank, on their way to the common ren- 
dezvous at Independence.^ On a rainy day near sunset, we 
reached the landing of this place, which is some miles from 
the river, on the extreme frontier of Missouri. The scene 
was characteristic, for here were represented at one view 
the most remarkable features of this wild and enterprising 
region. On the muddy shore stood some thirty or forty 
dark slavish-looking Spaniards, gazing stupidly out from 
beneath their broad hats. They were attached to one of 
the Santa Fe companies, whose wagons were crowded to- 
gether upon the banks above. In the midst of these crouch- 
ing over a smoldering fire, was a group of Indians be- 
longing to a remote Mexican tribe. One or two French 
hunters from the mountains, with their long hair and buck- 
skin dresses, were looking at the boat ; and seated on a 
log close at hand were three men with rifles lying across 
their knees. The foremost of these, a strong, tall figure 
with a clear, blue eye, and an open, intelligent face, might 
very well represent that race of restless and intrepid pio- 
neers whose axes and rifles have opened a path from the 
Alleghanies to the western prairies. He was on his way 
to Oregon, probably a more congenial field to him than 
any that now remained on this side of the great plains. 

Early on the next morning we reached Kanzas, about 
five hundred miles from the mouth of the Missouri. Here 
we landed, and, leaving our equipments in charge of Colonel 
Chick, whose log house was the substitute for a tavern, we 
set out in a wagon for Westport, where we hoped to pro- 
cure mules and horses for the journey. 

It was a remarkably fresh and beautiful May morning. 
The woods, through which the miserable road conducted 
us, were lighted by the bright sunshine and enlivened by a 
multitude of birds. We overtook on the way our late 
fellow travellers, the Kanzas Indians, who, adorned with 
all their finery, were proceeding homeward at a round pace ; 

^See note on the previous selection. 



THE AIOVEMENT TO THE FAR WEST 185 

and whatever they might have seemed on board the boat, 
they made a very striking and picturesque feature in the 
forest landscape. 

Westport ^ was full of Indians, whose little shaggy 
ponies were tied by dozens along the houses and fences. 
Sacs and Foxes, with shaved heads and painted faces, 
Shawanoes and Delawares, fluttering in calico frocks and 
turbans, Wyandots dressed like white men, and a few 
wretched Kanzas wrapped in old blankets, were strolling 
about the streets, or lounging in and out of the shops and 
houses. . . . 

. . . The emigrants, . . . were encamped on the prairie 
about eight or ten miles distant, to the number of a thou- 
sand or more, and new parties were constantly passing out 
from Independence to join them. They were in great con- 
fusion, holding meetings, passing resolutions, and draw- 
ing up regulations, but unable to unite in the choice of 
leaders to conduct them across the prairie. Being at 
leisure one day, I rode over to Independence. The town 
was crowded. A multitude of shops had sprung up to 
furnish the emigrants and Santa Fe traders with neces- 
saries for their journey ; and there was an incessant ham- 
mering and banging from a dozen blacksmiths' sheds, where 
the heavy wagons were being repaired, and the horses and 
oxen shod. The streets were thronged with men, horses 
and mules. While I was in the town, a train of emigrant 
wagons from Illinois passed through to join the camp on 
the prairie, and stopped in the principal street. A multi- 
tude of healthy children's faces were peeping out from un- 
der the covers of the wagons. Here and there a buxom 
damsel was seated on horseback, holding over her sun- 
burnt face an old umbrella or a parasol, once gaudy enough 
but now miserably faded. The men, very sober-looking 
countrymen, stood about their oxen ; and as I passed I 
noticed three old fellows, who, with their long whips in 

3 Now four or five miles from Kansas City, Missouri. 



l86 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

their hands, were zealously discussing the doctrine of re- 
generation. The emigrants, however, are not all of this 
stamp. Among them are some of the vilest outcasts in 
the country. I have often perplexed myself to divine the 
various motives that give impulse to this migration; but 
whatever they may be, whether an insane hope of a better 
condition in life, or a desire of shaking off restraints of 
law and society, or mere restlessness, certain it is that mul- 
titudes bitterly repent the journey, and, after they have 
reached the land of promise, are happy enough to escape 
from it. . . . 

The great medley of Oregon and California emigrants 
at their camps around Independence had heard reports that 
several additional parties were on the point of setting out 
from St. Joseph farther to the northward. The prevail- 
ing impression was that these were Mormons, twenty-three 
hundred in number ; * and a great alarm was excited in 
consequence. The people of Illinois and Missouri, who 
composed by far the greater part of the emigrants, have 
never been on the best terms with the " Latter Day 
Saints " ; and it is notorious throughout the country how 
much blood has been spilt in their feuds, even far within 
the limits of the settlements. No one could predict what 
would be the result, when large, armed bodies of these 
fanatics should encounter the most impetuous and reckless 
of their old enemies on the broad prairie, far beyond the 
reach of law or military force. The women and children 
at Independence raised a great outcry ; the men themselves 
were seriously alarmed ; and, as I learned, they sent to 
Colonel Kearney, requesting an escort of dragoons as far 
as the Platte. This was refused ; and, as the sequel proved, 
there was no occasion for it. The St. Joseph emigrants 

* The settlements of the Mormons had been broken up in Missouri 
by 1840, and in Illinois in 1844-46. The headquarters of the Mor^ 
mons remained at Council Bluffs till, in 1847, their exploring parties 
reached Salt Lake and selected it as the site of a permanent settle- 
ment 



THE MOVEMENT TO THE FAR WEST 1S7 

were as good Christians and as zealous Mormon-haters 
as the rest ; and the very few famiHes of the " Saints " 
who passed out this season by the route of the Platte re- 
mained behind until the great tide of emigration had gone 
by, standing in quite as much awe of the " gentiles " as the 
latter did of them. . . . 

We were now at the end of our solitary journeyings 
along the St. Joseph trail. On the evening of the twenty- 
third of May we encamped near its junction with the old 
legitimate trail of the Oregon emigrants. ... As we lay 
around the fire after supper, a low and distant sound, 
strange enough amid the loneliness of the prairies, reached 
our ears, peals of .laughter, and the faint voices of men and 
women. For eight days we had not encountered a hu- 
man being, and this singular warning of their vicinity had 
an effect extremely impressive. 

About dark a sallow-faced fellow descended the hill on 
horseback, and splashing through the pool, rode up to the 
tents. He was enveloped in a huge cloak, and his broad 
felt hat was weeping about his ears with the drizzling 
moisture of the evening. Another followed, a stout, square- 
built, intelligent-looking man, who announced himself as 
leader of an emigrant party, encamped a mile in advance of 
us 

These were the first emigrants that we had overtaken, 
although we had found abundant and melancholy traces 
of their progress throughout the course of the journey. 
Sometimes we passed the grave of one who had sickened 
and died on the way. The earth was usually torn up and 
covered thickly with wolf tracks. Some had escaped this 
violation. One morning, a piece of plank, standing up- 
right on the summit of a grassy hill, attracted our notice, 
and riding up to it, we found the following words very 
roughly traced upon it, apparently with a red-hot piece of 
iron: — mary ellis 

DIED MAY 7TH, 1 845 
AGED TWO MONTHS 



i88 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Such tokens were of common occurrence. 

We were late in breaking up our camp on the following 
morning, and scarcely had we ridden a mile, when we saw, 
far in advance of us, drawn against the horizon, a line of 
objects stretching at regular intervals along the level edge 
of the prairie. An intervening swell soon hid them from 
sight, until ascending it a quarter of an hour after, we 
saw close before us the emigrant caravan, with its heavy 
white wagons, creeping on in slow procession, and a large 
drove of cattle following behind. Half-a-dozen yellow- 
visaged Missourians, mounted on horseback, were cursing 
and shouting among them, their lank, angular proportions 
enveloped in brown homespun, evidently cut and adjusted 
by the hands of a domestic female tailor. As we ap- 
proached they called out to us: ''How are ye, boys? 
Are ye for Oregon or California?" 

As we pushed rapidly by the wagons, children's faces 
were thrust out from the white coverings to look at us; 
while the care-worn, thin-featured matron, or the buxom 
girl seated in front, suspended the knitting on which most 
of them were engaged to stare at us with wondering curi- 
osity. By the side of each wagon stalked the proprietor, 
urging on his patient oxen, who shouldered heavily along, 
inch by inch, on their interminable journey. It was easy 
to see that fear and dissension prevailed among them ; 
some of the men — but these, with one exception, were 
bachelors — looked wistfully upon us as we rode lightly 
and swiftly by, and then impatiently at their own lumbering 
wagons and heavy-gaited oxen. Others were unwilling to 
advance at all, until the party they had left behind should 
have rejoined them. Many were murmuring against the 
leader they had chosen, and wished to depose him ; and this 
discontent was fomented by some ambitious spirits who had 
hopes of succeeding in his place. The women were divided 
between regrets for the homes they had left and fear of 
the deserts and savages before them. 

We soon left them far behind, and hoped that we had 



THE MOVEMENT TO THE FAR WEST 189 

taken a final leave; but our companions' wagon stuck so 
long in a muddy ditch that before it was extricated the van 
of the emigrant caravan appeared again, descending a ridge 
close at hand. Wagon after wagon plunged through the 
mud; and as it was nearly noon, and the place promised 
shade and water, we saw with satisfaction that they were 
resolved to encamp. Soon the wagons were wheeled into 
a circle ; the cattle were grazing over the meadow, and the 
men with sour, sullen faces, were looking about for wood 
and water. They seemed to meet but indifferent success. 
As we left the ground, I saw a tall, slouching fellow with 
the nasal accent of " down east " contemplating the con- 
tents of his tin cup, which he had just filled with water. 
*' Look here, you," said he ; " it's chock-full of animals ! " 
The cup as he held it out, exhibited in fact an extraor- 
dinary variety and profusion of animal and vegetable life. 
Riding up the little hill, and looking back on the meadow, 
we could easily see that all was not right in the camp of 
the emigrants. The men were crowded together and an 
angry discussion seemed to be going forward. 

Francis Parkman : The Oregon Trail, pp. 1-6, 36, 51- 
54. Little, Brown and Co., New York, 1893. 

Questions 

What were the difficulties of navigating the Missouri? What 
evidences of the Santa Fe trade and the Oregon migration could 
be seen m the passage up the Missouri? What was the general 
character of the Oregon emigrants? How did they attempt to or- 
ganize for the passage of the Plains? Compare the account with 
Gregg's story of the organization of a Santa Fe caravan. What 
was the feeling between the Oregon emigrants and the Mormons? 
Describe an emigrant caravan. How did it make camp? 



190 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

XXXII 

CALIFORNIA IN 1849 

The discovery of gold in California in 1848 transformed a 
sleepy Mexican province into a bustling American State; for 
the report of the gold fields drew thousands of Americans, 
some going in overland wagon trains, some by way of the 
Isthmus of Panama, while others made the long voyage around 
the Horn. The story is a fascinating one in itself; Bret Harte's 
tales of the " Forty-niners" are classics of American literature; 
and the account given below has the interest of being written 
by one who apparently was an eye-witness of the events he 
described. 

Although the romance of the California gold fields has an 
interest and importance all its own in our history, we must re- 
member that in the development of the United States a similar 
scene has been enacted in other mining regions. Repeatedly 
the discovery of precious metals has built up a feverish mining 
camp in a desert ; a mining camp in which labor is priceless, the 
cheapest commodities bring fabulous sums, and business methods 
and social or political relations are swept away for the time. 

In each of these cases the community has soon steadied 
itself, set up government, reestablished ordinary standards of 
morality, and restored business to a normal level. But in Cal- 
ifornia the task was most difficult; and accordingly all the 
greater honor is due the American citizens who reestablished 
order. In the latter part of 1849 California's new citizens held 
a constitutional convention, drew up a state constitution, and 
applied for admission to the Union. At Washington in that 
year Northern and Southern statesmen were debating the divi- 
sion of the spoils of Mexico between freedom and slavery. Cal- 
ifornia's demand for admission as a Free State introduced a 
new factor into the problem and helped to bring matters to a 
head. 

The promising state of things in San Francisco shortly 
before described was now to be suddenly checked by means 
which, unpromising at first, ultimately led to the most ex- 
traordinary prosperity in the city. Early in the spring of 



THE MOVEMENT TO THE FAR WEST 191 

this year, occasional intelligence had been received of the 
finding of gold in large quantities among the foothills of the 
Sierra Nevada, the particulars of which discovery we have 
already given. Small parcels of the precious metal had 
also been forwarded to San Francisco, while visitors from 
the mines, and some actual diggers arrived, to tell the won- 
ders of the region and the golden gains of those engaged in 
exploring and working it. In consequence of such repre- 
sentations, the inhabitants began gradually, in bands and 
singly, to desert their previous occupations, and betake 
themselves to the American River and other auriferous 
parts of the great Sacramento Valley. Labor, from the 
deficiency of hands, rose rapidly in value, and soon all 
business and work, except the most urgent, was forced to 
be stopped. Seamen deserted from their ships in the bay 
and soldiers from the barracks. Over all the country the 
excitement was the same. Neither threats, punishment 
nor money could keep men to their most solemn engage- 
ments. Gold was the irresistible magnet that drew hu- 
man souls to the place where it lay, rudely snapping asunder 
the feebler ties of affection and duty. Avarice and the 
overweening desire to be suddenly rich, from whence 
sprang the hope and moral certainty of being so, grew into 
a disease, and the infection spread on all sides, and led to 
a general migration of every class of the community to 
the golden quarters. The daily laborer, who had worked 
for the good and at the command of another, for one or 
two dollars a day, could not be restrained from flying to 
the happy spot where he could earn six or ten times the 
amount, and might possibly gain a hundred or even a thou- 
sand times the sum in one lucky day's chance. Then the 
life, at worst, promised to be one of continual adventure and 
excitement, and the miner was his own master. While 
this was the case with the common laborer, his employer, 
wanting his services, suddenly found his occupation at an 
end; while shopkeepers and the like, dependent on both, 
discovered themselves in the same predicament. The glow- 



192 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

ing tales of the successful miners all the while reached their 
ears, and threw their own steady and large gains com- 
paratively in the shade. They therefore could do no bet- 
ter, in a pecuniary sense even, for themselves, than to 
hasten after their old servants, and share in their new la- 
bor and its extraordinary gains, or pack up their former 
business stock, and, travelling with it to the mines, open 
their new stores and shops and stalls, and dispose of their 
old articles to the fortunate diggers, at a rise of five hun- 
dred or a thousand per cent. 

In the month of May it was computed that, at least one 
hundred and fifty people had left San Francisco, and every 
day since was adding to their number. Some were oc- 
casionally returning from the auriferous quarter; but they 
had little time to stop and expatiate upon what they had 
seen. They had hastily come back, as they had hastily gone 
away at first, leaving their household and business to waste 
and ruin, now to fasten more properly their houses, and 
remove goods, family, and all, at once to the gold region. 
Their hurried movements, more even than the words they 
uttered, excited the curiosity and then the eager desire of 
others to accompany them. And so it was. Day after 
day the bay was covered with launches filled with the in- 
habitants and their goods, hastening up the Sacramento. 
This state of matters soon came to a head ; and master and 
man alike hurried to the placeres, leaving San Francisco, 
like a place where the plague reigns, forsaken by its old 
inhabitants, a melancholy solitude. 

On the 29th of May the Californian published a fly- 
sheet apologizing for the future non-issue of the paper, un- 
til better days came, when they might expect to retain their 
servants for some amount of remuneration, which at pres- 
ent was impossible, as all, from the ''subs" to the "devil" 
had indignantly rejected every offer, and gone off to the 
diggings. " The whole country," said the last editorial of 
the paper, " from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and from 
the seashore to the base of the Sierra Nevada, resounds 



THE MOVEMENT TO THE FAR WEST 193 

with the sordid cry of gold! gold!! GOLD!!! — 
while the field is left half planted, the house half built, 
and every thing neglected but the manufacture of shovels 
and pick-axes, and the means of transportation to the spot 
where one man obtained one hundred and twenty-eight 
dollars' worth of the real stuff in one day's washing, and 
the average for all concerned is twenty dollars per diem!" 

On the 14th of June the California Star likewise ceased. 
In the explanatory fly-sheet, the editor simply and sadly 
said, that his paper '' could not be made by magic, and the 
labor of mechanism was as essential to its existence as to 
all other arts." And as everybody was deserting him, why, 
the press and the paper stopped together — that was 
all. . . . 

While San Francisco, like so many other parts of the 
country, was forsaken in the manner described in the fore- 
going chapter, the neighborhood of the American River was 
overflowing with people, all busily engaged in gold hunting. 
The miners by the middle of May were estimated to be 
about two thousand. In another month they had increased 
probably to three ; and, two months later, their number was 
supposed to be about six thousand. From that period the 
arrival of persons at the different auriferous districts, which 
were known to extend over a large space of territory, was 
constant ; but no sufficient materials existed to form a cor- 
rect opinion of their total number. The vast majority of 
all the laboring classes in the country had certainly deserted 
their former pursuits, and had become miners, while a great 
many others — merchants and their clerks, shop-keepers 
and their assistants, lawyers, surgeons, officials in every 
department of the State, of the districts and in the towns, 
run-away seamen and soldiers, and a great variety of non- 
descript adventurers — likewise began the search for gold. 
The miners were by no means exclusively American. They 
consisted of every kindred and clan. There were already 
tame Indians, Mexicans from Sonora, Kanakas from the 
Sandwich Islands, settlers from Oregon, mixed with the 
14 



194 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

usual dash of Spanish, British, German and French ad- 
venturers that had for a long time existed in California. 
Later months were to bring other Mexicans, Chinese, 
Peruvians, and Chilians, and all these before the great 
impending immigration of Americans and Europeans. 

At first the general gains of the miners, though great, 
were little compared to what shortly afterwards were col- 
lected. 

When the minters knew a little better about the busi- 
ness and the mode of turning their labor to the most profit- 
able account, the returns were correspondingly increased. 
At what were called the " dry diggings " particularly, the 
yield of gold was enormous. One piece of pure metal was 
found of thirteen pounds weight. The common instrument 
at first made use of was a simple butcher's knife ; and as 
everything was valuable in proportion to the demand and 
supply, butchers* knives suddenly went up to twenty and 
thirty dollars apiece. But afterwards the pick and shovel 
were employed. The auriferous earth, dug out of ravines 
and holes in the sides of the mountains, was packed on 
horses, and carried one, two, or three miles, to the nearest 
water, to be washed. An average price of this washing 
dirt was, at one period, so much as four hundred dollars a 
cart load. In one instance, five loads of such earth sold 
for seven hundred and fifty-two dollars, which yielded, 
after washing, sixteen thousand dollars. Cases occurred 
where men carried the earth in sacks on their backs to the 
watering places, and collected eight to fifteen hundred dol- 
lars in a day, as the proceeds of their labor. Individuals 
made their five thousand, ten thousand, and fifteen thou- 
sand dollars in the space of only a few weeks. One man 
dug out twelve thousand dollars in six days. Three others 
obtained eight thousand dollars in a single day. But these, 
of course, were extreme cases. 

The story has a shady as well as a bright side, and would 
be incomplete unless both were shown. There happened 



THE MOVEMENT TO THE FAR WEST 195 

to be a " sickly season " in the autumn at the mines ; and 
many of the miners sank under fever and diseases of the 
bowels. A severe kind of labor, to which most had been 
unaccustomed, a complete change of diet and habits, in- 
sufficient shelter, continued mental excitement, and the 
excesses in personal amusement and dissipation which 
golden gains induced, added to the natural unhealthiness 
that might have existed in the district at different periods 
of the year, soon introduced sore bodily troubles upon 
many of the mining population. No gains could compen- 
sate a dying man for the fatal sickness engendered by his 
own avaricious exertions. In the wild race for riches, the 
invalid was neglected by old comrades still in rude health 
and the riotous enjoyment of all the pleasures that gold and 
the hope of continually adding to the store could bestow. 
When that was the case with old companions, it could not 
be expected that strangers should care whether the sick 
man lived or died. Who, forsooth, among the busy throng 
would trouble himself with the feeble miner that had mis- 
calculated his energies, and lay dying on the earthen floor 
of his tent or under the protecting branch of a tree ? . . . 

Provisions and necessaries, as might have been expected, 
soon rose in price enormously. At first the rise was mod- 
erate indeed, four hundred per cent, for flour, and five 
hundred for beef cattle, while other things were in propor- 
tion. But these were trifles. The time soon came when 
eggs were sold at one, two, and three dollars apiece ; in- 
ferior sugar, tea, and coffee, at four dollars a pound in 
small quantities, or, three or four hundred dollars a bar- 
rel; medicines — say, for laudanum, a dollar a drop, (ac- 
tually forty dollars were paid for a dose of that quantity), 
and ten dollars a pill or purge, without advice or with it, 
from thirty, up, aye, to one hundred dollars. Spirits were 
sold at various prices, from ten to forty dollars a quart ; 
and wines at about as much per bottle. Picks and shovels 
ranged from five to fifteen dollars each; and common 



196 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

wooden or tin bowls about half as much. Clumsy rockers 
were sold at from fifty to eighty dollars, and small gold 
scales, from twenty to thirty. As for beef, little of it was 
to be had, and then only jerked, at correspondingly high 
prices. For luxuries — of which there were not many ; if 
a lucky miner set his heart on some trifle, it might be 
pickles, fruit, fresh pork, sweet butter, new vegetables, a 
box of Seidlitz powders or of matches, he was prepared to 
give any quantity of the " dust " rather than be balked. 
We dare not trust ourselves to name some of the fancy 
prices thus given, lest we should be supposed to be only 
romancing. No man would give another a hand's turn for 
less than five dollars, while a day's constant labor of the 
commonest kind, if it could have been procured at all, 
would cost from twenty to thirty dollars, at least. When 
these things, and the risks of sickness, the discomforts of 
living, and the unusual and severe kind of labor are all 
balanced against the average gains, it may appear that, 
after all, the miners were only enough paid. 

When subsequently immigrants began to arrive in nu- 
merous bands, any amount of labor could be obtained, pro- 
vided always a most unusually high price was paid for it. 
Returned diggers, and those who cautiously had never went 
to the mines, were then also glad enough to work for rates 
varying from twelve to thirty dollars a day ; at which terms 
most capitalists were somewhat afraid to commence any 
heavy undertaking. The hesitation was only for an in- 
stant. Soon all the labor that could possibly be procured, 
was in ample request, at whatever rates were demanded. 
The population of a great State was suddenly flocking in 
upon them, and no preparations had hitherto been made 
for its reception. Building lots had to be surveyed, and 
streets graded and planked — hills leveled — hollows, la- 
goons, and the bay itself piled, capped, filled up and 
planked, — lumber, bricks, and all other building materials, 
provided at most extraordinarily high prices — houses 



THE MOVEMENT TO THE FAR WEST ip^ 

built, finished and furnished — great warehouses and stores 
erected — ^ wharves run far out into the sea — numberless 
tons of goods removed from shipboard, and delivered and 
shipped anew everywhere — and ten thousand other things 
had all to be done without a moment's unnecessary delay. 
Long before these things were completed, the sand-hills and 
barren ground around the town were overspread with a 
multitude of canvas, blanket and bough-covered tents, — 
the bay was alive with shipping and small craft carrying 
passengers and goods backwards and forwards, — the un- 
planked, ungraded, unformed streets, (at one time moving 
heaps of dry sand and dust ; at another, miry abysses, whose 
treacherous depths sucked in horse and dray, and occa- 
sionally man himself,) were crowded with human beings 
from every corner of the universe and of every tongue — 
all excited and busy, plotting, speaking, working, buying 
and selling town lots, and beach and water lots, shiploads 
of every kind of assorted merchandise, the ships them- 
selves, if they could, — though that was not often — gold 
dust in hundred weights, ranches square leagues in extent, 
with their thousands of cattle — allotments in hundreds of 
contemplated towns, already prettily designed and laid 
out, — on paper, — and, in short, speculating and gambling 
in every branch of modern commerce, and in many strange 
things peculiar to the time and the place. And everybody 
made money, and zvas suddenly growing rich. 

The loud voices of the eager seller and as eager buyer — 
the laugh of reckless joy — the bold accents of successful 
speculation — the stir and hum of active hurried labor, as 
man and brute, horse and bullock, and their guides, strug- 
gled and managed through heaps of loose rubbish, over 
hills of sand, and among deceiving deep mud pools and 
swamps, filled the amazed newly arrived immigrant with 
an almost appalling sense of the exuberant life, energy and 
enterprise of the place. He breathed quick and faintly — 
his limbs grew weak as water — and his heart sunk within 
him as he thought of the dreadful conflict, when he ap- 



198 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

preached and mingled among that confused and terrible 
business battle. . . . 

We are, however, anticipating and going ahead too fast. 
We cannot help it. The very thought of that wondrous 
time is an electric spark that fires into one great flame ail 
our fancies, passions and experiences of the fall of the 
eventful year, 1849. The remembrance of those days 
comes across us like the delirium of fever ; we are caught 
by it before we are aware, and forthwith begin to babble 
of things which to our sober Atlantic friends seem more 
the ravings of a madman than plain, dull realities. The 
world had perhaps never before aft'orded such a spectacle ; 
and probably nothing of the kind will be witnessed again 
for generations to come. Happy the man who can tell of 
those things which he saw and perhaps himself did at San 
Francisco at that time. He shall be an oracle to admiring 
neighbors. A city of twenty or thirty thousand inhabitants 
improvised — the people nearly all adult males, strong in 
person, clever, bold, sanguine, restless and reckless — But 
really we must stop now and descend to our simple 
" annals." 

Frank Soule, and Others : The Annals of San Fran- 
cisco, pp. 201-204, 209-217, passim. D. Appleton and 
Co., New York, 1855. 

Questions 

What efifect did the discovery of gold have at first on the growth 
of San Francisco? How did the discovery of gold later aid the 
city's growth indirectly? Describe how the rush to the gold fields 
paralyzed all ordinary business. How much did the price of labor 
rise? What was the character of the people at the mines? De- 
scribe the methods of mining. What prices were paid for com- 
modities at the mines? What do you think caused such high 
prices — the abundance of gold or the scarcity of commodities? 
This is a question which probably cannot be answered authoritatively 
one way or the other. Economists are still uncertain whether or not 
the amount of money in circulation determines the price of com- 
modities. 



PART VI 

SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 

XXXIII 

GARRISONIAN ABOLITIONISM 

It is not natural for a reformer filled with enthusiasm and 
zeal for a great ideal, to be tolerant of existing conditions ; nor 
does he easily put up with legal or conventional restrictions 
which keep him from reaching his goal at a single bound. To 
this class of reformers belonged William Lloyd Garrison and 
his followers. They found much in the Constitution and laws 
to complain of: the Constitution recognized or made a union of 
States, in some of which slavery existed, and under the forms 
of law slavery in a State could not be touched by Congressional 
or other governmental action; the Constitution contained cer- 
tain expressions which appeared to give recognition to slavery 
or even protect it. To the Garrisonians, therefore, it was sinful 
to participate in a government or accept the validity of a po- 
litical system which recognized slavery, for slavery was itself a 
sin. Naturally because of the very nature of the crusade — a 
moral warfare against evil — they had no sympathy for the 
plodding, circuitous methods of practical politics. 

A 

SLAVERY A POSITIVE EVIL 

This declaration of policy appeared in the first number of the 
Liberator, the abolition newspaper begun at Boston by William 
Lloyd Garrison in 1831. This manifesto is usually quoted as 
the beginning of a new era in the movement against slavery. 
Thousands of prominent men before Garrison had deplored the 
existence of slavery and prayed for its extinction ; but they had 
all believed in cautious and gradual remedies. It was left for 

199 



200 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Garrison to stamp slavery as a sin that should lie heavy on 
the consciences both of those who owned slaves and of those 
who condoned or in any way abetted slavery. It was Garri- 
son's policy by harsh words to bring home to men the fact that 
he considered slavery the great sin of the age, even if at first 
he only stirred them up to attack him. Anything was better, he 
thought, than allowing them to forget that slavery existed, 
that it was a crime, and that those who were not against it were 
for it. 

. . . During my recent tour for the purpose of exciting 
the minds of the people by a series of discourses on the 
subject of slavery, every place that I visited gave fresh 
evidence of the fact that a greater revolution in public 
sentiment was to be effected in the Free States — and par- 
ticularly in New England — than at the South. I found 
contempt more bitter, opposition more active, detraction 
more relentless, prejudice more stubborn, and apathy more 
frozen, than among slave-owners themselves. Of course, 
there were individual exceptions to the contrary. This 
state of things afflicted but did not dishearten me. I de- 
termined, at every hazard, to lift up the standard of eman- 
cipation in the eyes of the nation, zmthin sight of Bunker 
Hill and in the birthplace of liberty. That standard is now 
unfiirled ; and long may it float, unhurt by the spoliations 
of time or the missiles of a desperate foe — yea, till every 
chain be broken, and every bondman set free ! Let South- 
ern oppressors tremble — let their secret abettors tremble 
— let their Northern apologists tremble — let all the ene- 
mies of the persecuted Blacks tremble. 

I deem the publication of my original Prospectus unnec- 
essary, as it has obtained a wide circulation. The prin- 
ciples therein inculcated will be steadily pursued in this 
paper, excepting that I shall not array myself as the political 
partisan of any man. In defending the great cause of 
human rights, I wish to derive the assistance of all re- 
ligions and of all parties. 

Assenting to the " self-evident truth " maintained in the 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 201 

American Declaration of Independence, '' that all men are 
created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain 
inalienable rights — among which are life, liberty and the 
pursuit of happiness," I shall strenuously contend for the 
immediate enfranchisement of our slave population. In 
Park-Street Church, on the Fourth of July, 1829, in an 
address on slavery, I unreflectingly assented to the popular 
but pernicious doctrine of gradual abolition. I seize this 
opportunity to make a full and unequivocal recantation, 
and thus publicly to ask pardon of my God, of my country, 
and of my brethren, the poor slaves, for having uttered a 
sentiment so full of timidity, injustice, and absurdity. A 
similar recantation, from my pen, was published in the 
Genius of Universal Emancipation at Baltimore, in Sep- 
tember, 1829. My conscience is now satisfied. 

I am aware that many object to the severity of my 
language; but is there not cause for severity? I will he 
as harsh as truth, and as uncompromising as justice. , On 
this subject I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with 
moderation. No ! no ! Tell a man whose house is on fire 
to give a moderate alarm . . . tell the mother to gradually 
extricate her babe from the fire into which it is fallen ; but 
urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. 
I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse 
— I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE 
HEARD. The apathy of the people is enough to make 
every statue leap from its pedestal, and to hasten the resur- 
rection of -the dead. 

It is pretended, that I am retarding the cause of emanci- 
pation by the coarseness of my invective and the precipi- 
tancy of my measures. The charge is not true. On this 
question my influence, — humble as it is — is felt at this 
moment to a considerable extent, and shall be felt in com- 
ing years — not perniciously, but beneficially — not as a 
curse but as a blessing; and posterity will bear testimony 
that I was right. I desire to thank God, that he enables 
me to disregard " the fear of man which bringeth a snare," 



202 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

and to speak his truth in its simplicity and power. And 
here I close with this fresh dedication: 

** Oppression ! I have seen thee, face to face, 
And met thy cruel eye and cloudy brow; 
But thy soul-withering glance I fear not now — 
For dread to prouder feelings doth give place 
Of deep abhorrence ! Scorning the disgrace 
Of slavish knees that at thy footstool bow, 
I also kneel — but with far other vow 
Do hail thee and thy herd of hirelings base : — 
I swear, while life-blood warms my throbbing veins, 
Still to oppose and thwart, with heart and hand, 
Thy brutalizing sway — till Afric's chains 
Are burst, and Freedom rules the rescued land, — 
Trampling Oppression and his iron rod: 
Such is the vozu I take — SO HELP ME GOD ! " 

William Lloyd Garrison. 
Boston, January i, 1831. 

Questions 

How did Garrison base his anti-slavery doctrine on the Declara- 
tion of Independence? What did he think of plans for gradual 
emancipation ? 

B 

The abolitionists of Garrison's type faced squarely the fact, 
which many good anti-slavery people tried not to see, that the 
Constitution of the United States recognized and protected the 
institution of slavery ; that its apportionment of powers between 
national and state governments compelled citizens of the United 
States to abide in a union with slave-holders, without the op- 
portunity to press on the national government the abolition of 
slavery in the States. Accordingly they considered any par- 
ticipation in any of the duties of citizenship and politics un- 
der the Constitution to be wrong; because it made them par- 
takers in the guilt of their slave-holding fellow-citizens. A 
later selection gives the account of how Garrison in pursuance 
of this idea burned the Constitution of the United States as 
a " covenant with death and an agreement with hell." 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 203 

IL The American Constitution is the exponent of the 
national compact. We affirm that it is an instrument 
which no man can innocently bind himself to support, be- 
cause its anti-republican and anti-Christian requirements 
are explicit and -peremptory ; at least, so explicit that, in 
regard to all the clauses pertaining to slavery, they have 
been uniformly understood and enforced in the same way 
by all the courts and by all the people; and so peremptory 
that no individual interpretation or authority can set them 
aside with impunity. . . . It means precisely what those 
zvho framed and adopted it meant — nothing more, 
NOTHING LESS, as a matter of bargain and compromise. . . . 
No just or honest use of it can be made, in opposition to 
the plain intention of its framers, except to declare the 
contract at an end, and to refuse to serve under it. 

To the argument, that the words " slaves " and " slave- 
holders " are not to be found in the Constitution, and there- 
fore that it was never intended to give any protection or 
countenance to the slave system, it is sufficient to reply, 
that, though no such words are contained in that instru- 
ment, other words were used, intelligently and specifically, 

TO MEET THE NECESSITIES OF SLAVERY. . . . 

Again, if it be said that those clauses, being immoral, 
are null and void — we reply, it is true they are not to be 
observed ; but it is also true that they are portions of an 
instrument the support of which, AS A WHOLE, is re- 
quired by oath or affirmation; and, therefore, because they 
are immoral, and because of this obligation to enforce 
IMMORALITY, uo One can innocently swear to support the 
Constitution. 

Again, if it be objected that the Constitution was formed 
by the people of the United States in order to establish 
justice, to promote the general welfare, and secure the 
blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity, and 
therefore it is to be so construed as to harmonize with 
these objects; we reply, again, that its language is not to 
be interpreted in a sense which neither of the contracting 



204 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

parties understood, and which would frustrate the very de- 
sign of their alHance — to wit, union at the expense of the 
colored population of the country. Moreover, nothing is 
more certain than that the preamble alluded to never in- 
cluded, in the minds of those who framed it, those who 
were then pining in bondage — for, in that case, a general 
emancipation of the slaves would have instantly been pro- 
claimed throughout the United States. The words, " se- 
cure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos- 
terity," assuredly meant only the white population. '' To 
promote the general welfare," referred to their own wel- 
fare exclusively. " To establish justice," was understood 
to be for their sole benefit as slaveholders and the guilty 
abettors of slavery. This is demonstrated by other parts 
of the same instrument, and by their own practice under it. 
We would not detract aught from what is justly their 
due; but it is as reprehensible to give them credit for what 
they did not possess, as it is to rob them of what is theirs. 
It is absurd, it is false, it is an insult to the common sense 
of mankind, to pretend that the Constitution was intended 
to embrace the entire population of the country under its 
sheltering wings ; or that the parties to it were actuated 
by a sense of justice and the spirit of impartial liberty ; or 
that it needs no alteration, but only a new interpretation, 
to make it harmonize with the object aimed at by its 
adoption. As truly might it be argued that because it is 
asserted in the Declaration of Independence that all men 
are created equal, and endowed with an inalienable right to 
liberty, therefore none of its signers were slaveholders, 
and, since its adoption, slavery has been banished from the 
American soil ! The truth is, our fathers were intent on 
securing liberty to themselves, without being very scrupu- 
lous as to the means they used to accomplish their pur- 
pose. . . . Why, then, concede to them virtues which they 
did not possess? Why cling to the falsehood that they 
zvere no respecters of persons in the formation of the Gov- 
ernment f Alas! that they had no fear of God, no more 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 205 

regard for man, in their hearts ! " The iniquity of the 
house of Israel and Judah [the North and the South] is 
exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city 
full of perverseness ; for they say, The Lord hath forsaken 
the earth, and the Lord seeth not." ^ 

The Liberator, Vol. 14, p. 86. 

Questions 

What did Garrison say was the position of the Constitution with 
respect to slavery? How did he dispose of the quibbles that the 
word "slave" was not used in the Constitution? that in swearing to 
support it, one did not swear to support the slavery clauses because, 
being morally wrong, they were null and void? Did he think it 
possible to interpret it as anti-slavery because the preamble stated 
the purpose of the document to be the establishment of justice, 
etc? What did he say the words meant? 



He should now proceed to perform an action which 
would be the testimony of his own soul, to all present, of 
the estimation in which he held the pro-slavery laws and 
deeds of the nation. Producing a copy of the Fugitive 
Slave Law, he set fire to it, and it burnt to ashes. Using 
an old and well-known phrase, he said, " And let all the 
people say. Amen"; and a unanimous cheer and shout of 
*' Amen " burst from the vast audience. In like manner 
I\Ir. Garrison burned the decision of Edward G. Loring 
in the case of ^Anthony Burns, and the late charge of Judge 
Benjamin R. Curtis to the United States Grand Jury in ref- 
erence to the " treasonable " assault upon the Court House 
for the rescue of the fugitive — the multitude ratifying the 
fiery immolation with shouts of applause. Then, holding 
up the U.[nited] S.[tates] Constitution, he branded it as the 
source and parent of -all the other atrocities, — " a covenant 
with death and an agreement with hell," — and consumed 
it to ashes on the spot, exclaiming, " So perish all com- 

1 Ezekiel 9 :g. 



2o6 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

promises with tyranny! And let all the people say. 
Amen ! " A tremendous shout of " Amen ! " went up to 
heaven in ratification of the deed, mingled with a few 
hisses and wrathful exclamations from some who were evi- 
dently in a rowdyish state of mind, but who were at once 
cowed by the popular feeling. 

The Liberator, Vol. 24, p. 106. July 4, 1854. 

Question" 

What fact did Garrison wish to impress on his audience by burn- 
ing the Constitution? 

XXXIV 

SLAVERY A POSITIVE GOOD 

This speech was delivered by Calhoun in the Senate, Febru- 
ary 6, 1837. It was prefaced by the reading at Calhoun's re- 
quest of two of the numerous anti-slavery petitions on the table 
of the Senate. 

Note that Calhoun nowhere takes up the question as to 
whether slavery in itself and in the abstract is right or wrong. 
He argues only for its being expedient, and for its making life 
more comfortable physically for both whites and blacks. He 
contends chiefly that when two races are together one must rule 
and the other be ruled, and the situation in the South was a 
practical fact; but he defends the condition as preeminently 
making for peace and happiness. It is very doubtful if his 
statement that African slavery had not retarded the whites of 
the South intellectually is correct. Note Calhoun's assumptions 
that in any civilized society a few persons will acquire leisure 
and luxury by living on the labor of the great masses of the 
people ; and that in any such society there is bound to be a con- 
flict between capital and labor; these are the assumptions on 
which the Socialists at present base their argument for the do- 
ing away with the present industrial system. Calhoun's argu- 
ment for slavery based on the South's success in avoiding this 
conflict is hardly conclusive; the settlement that slavery af- 
forded was in effect to leave the laborer helplessly dependent on 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 207 

the employer with no chance for opposing his will. Even if it 
could be shown that the whites or the slave owners — and by 
no means all whites owned slaves — what of the laborer? Is 
the ultimate in human society the ownership of laborer by cap- 
italist? 

I do not belong, said Mr. C, to the school vv^hich holds 
that aggression is to be met by concession. Mine is the 
opposite creed, which teaches that encroachments must be 
met at the beginning, and that those who act on the opposite 
principle are prepared to become slaves. In this case, in 
particular. I hold concession or compromise to be fatal. If 
we concede an inch, concession would follow concession — 
compromise would follow compromise, until our ranks 
would be so broken that effectual resistance would be im- 
possible. We must meet the enemy on the frontier, with 
a fixed determination of maintaining our position at every 
hazard. Consent to receive these insulting petitions, and 
the next demand will be that they be referred to a com- 
mittee in order that they may be deliberated and acted 
upon. At the last session we were modestly asked to re- 
ceive them, simply to lay them on the table, without any 
view to ulterior action. ... I then said, that the next step 
would be to refer the petition to a committee, and I already 
see indications that such is now the intention. If we 
yield, that will be followed by another, and we will thus 
proceed, step by step, to the final consummation of the 
object of these petitions. We are now told that the most 
effectual mode of arresting the progress of abolition is, to 
reason it down; and with this view it is urged that the 
petitions ought to be referred to a committee. That is 
the very ground which was taken at the last session in the 
other House, but instead of arresting its progress it has 
since advanced more rapidly than ever. The most unques- 
tionable right may be rendered doubtful, if once admitted 
to be a subject of controversy, and that would be the case 
in the present instance. The subject is beyond the juris- 
diction of Congress — they have no right to touch it in 



208 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

any shape or form, or to make it the subject of deUberation 
or discussion. . . . 

As widely as this incendiary spirit has spread, it has 
not yet infected this body, or the great mass of the intelH- 
gent and business portion of the North ; but unless it be 
speedily stopped, it will spread and work upwards till it 
brings the two great sections of the Union into deadly 
conflict. This is not a new impression with me. Several 
years since, in a discussion with one of the Senators from 
Massachusetts (Mr. Webster), before this fell spirit had 
showed itself, I then predicted that the doctrine of the 
proclamation and the Force Bill — that this Government 
had a right, in the last resort, to determine the extent of its 
own powers, and enforce its decision at the point of the 
bayonet, which was so warmly maintained by that Sena- 
tor, would at no distant day arouse the dormant spirit of 
abolitionism. I told him that the doctrine was tantamount 
to the assumption of unlimited power on the part of the 
Government, and that such would be the impression on the 
public mind in a large portion of the Union. The conse- 
quence would be inevitable. A large portion of the North- 
ern States believed slavery to be a sin, and would consider it 
as an obligation of conscience to abolish it if they should feel 
themselves in any degree responsible for its continuance, 
and that this doctrine would necessarily lead to the belief of 
such responsibility. I then predicted that it would com- 
mence as it has with this fanatical portion of society, and 
that they would begin their operations on the ignorant, the 
weak, the young, and the thoughtless, — and gradually ex- 
tend upwards till they would become strong enough to 
obtain political control, when he and others holding the 
highest stations in society, would, however reluctant, be 
compelled to yield to their doctrines, or be driven into 
obscurity. But four years have since elapsed, and all this 
is already in a course of regular fulfilment. 

Standing at the point of time at which we have now ar- 
rived, it will not be more difficult to trace the course of fu- 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 209 

ture events now than it was then. They who imagine that 
the spirit now abroad in the North, will die away of itself 
without a shock or convulsion, have formed a very inade- 
quate conception of its real character ; it will continue to rise 
and spread, unless prompt and efficient measures to stay its 
progress be adopted. Already it has taken possession of 
the pulpit, of the schools, and, to a considerable extent, of 
the press ; those great instruments by which the mind of 
the rising generation will be formed. 

However sound the great body of the non-slaveholding 
States are at present, in the course of a few years they 
will be succeeded by those who will have been taught to 
hate the people and institutions of nearly one-half of this 
Union, with a hatred more deadly than one hostile nation 
ever entertained towards another. It is easy to see the 
end. By the necessary course of events, if left to them- 
selves, we must become, finally, two people. It is impos- 
sible under the deadly hatred which must spring up between 
the two great nations, if the present causes are permitted 
to operate unchecked, that we should continue under the 
same political system. The conflicting elements would 
burst the L^nion asunder, powerful as are the links which 
hold it together. Abolition and the Union cannot co- 
exist. As the friend of the Union I openly proclaim it, — 
and the sooner it is known the better. The former may 
now be controlled, but in a short time it will be beyond the 
power of man to arrest the course of events. We of the 
South will not, cannot, surrender our institutions. To 
maintain the existing relations between the two races, in- 
habiting that section of the Union, is indispensable to the 
peace and happiness of both. It cannot be subverted with- 
out drenching the country in blood, and extirpating one 
or the other of the races. . . . But let me not be under- 
stood as admitting, even by implication, that the existing 
relations between the two races in the slaveholding States 
is an evil : — far otherwise ; I hold it to be a good, as it has 
thus far proved itself to be to both, and will continue to 
15 



2IO READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

prove so if not disturbed by the fell spirit of abolition. I 
appeal to facts. Never before has the black race of Central 
Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, at- 
tained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only 
physically, but morally and intellectually. 

In the meantime, the white or European race, has not 
degenerated. It has kept pace with its brethren in other 
sections of the Union where slavery does not exist. It is 
odious to make comparison; but I appeal to all sides 
whether the South is not equal in virtue, intelligence, 
patriotism, courage, disinterestedness, and all the high 
qualities which adorn our nature. 

But I take higher ground. I hold that in the present 
state of civilization, where two races of different origin, 
and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as 
well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now 
existing in the slaveholding States between the two, is, 
instead of an evil, a good — a positive good. I feel myself 
called upon to speak freely upon the subject where the 
honor and interests of those I represent are involved. I 
hold then, that there never has yet existed a wealthy and 
civilized society in which one portion of the community 
did not, in point of fact, live on the labor of the other. 
Broad and general as is this assertion, it is fully borne out 
by history. This is not the proper occasion, but, if it were, 
it would not be difficult to trace the various devices by 
which the wealth of all civilized communities has been so 
unequally divided, and to show by what means so small 
a share has been allotted to those by whose labor it was 
produced, and so large a share given to the non-producing 
classes. The devices are almost innumerable, from the 
brute force and gross superstition of ancient times, to the 
subtle and artful fiscal contrivances of modern. I might 
well challenge a comparison between them and the more 
direct, simple, and patriarchal mode by which the labor 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 21 1 

of the African race is, among us, commanded by the 
European. I may say with truth, that in few countries so 
much is left to the share of the laborer, and so little exacted 
from him, or where there is more kind attention paid to 
him in sickness or infirmities of age. Compare his condi-. 
tion with the tenants of the poor houses in the more civil- 
ized portions of Europe — look at the sick, and the old 
and infirm slave, on one hand, in the midst of his family 
and friends, under the kind superintending care of his 
master and mistress, and compare it with the forlorn and 
wretched condition of the pauper in the poorhouse. But 
I will not dwell on this aspect of the question ; I turn to 
the political; and here I fearlessly assert that the existing 
relation between the two races in the South, against which 
these blind fanatics are waging war, forms the most solid 
and durable foundation on which to rear free and stable 
political institutions. It is useless to disguise the fact. 
There is and always has been in an advanced stage of 
wealth and civilization, a conflict between labor and capi- 
tal. The condition of society in the South exempts us 
from the disorders and dangers resulting from this con- 
flict; and which explains why it is that the political condi- 
tion of the slaveholding States has been so much more 
stable and quiet than that of the North. . . . Surrounded 
as the slaveholding States are with such imminent perils, 
I rejoice to think that our means of defense are ample, if 
we shall prove to have the intelligence and spirit to see and 
apply them before it is too late. All we want is concert, 
to lay aside all party differences and unite with zeal and 
energy in repelling approaching dangers. Let there be 
concert of action, and we shall find ample means of security 
without resorting to secession or disunion.^ I speak with 
full knowledge and a thorough examination of the subject, 
and for one see my way clearly. ... I dare not hope that 
anything I can say will arouse the South to a due sense of 
danger; I fear it is beyond the power of mortal voice to 

^ For Calhoun's attitude toward the Union, see pp. 252-3. 



212 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

awaken it in time from the fatal security into which it has 
fallen. 

R. K. Cralle: Speeches of John C. Calhoun, Vol. II, 
pp. 626-633. D. Appleton and Co., New York, 1853. 

Questions 

What did Calhoun think would be the results of making con- 
cessions to the Abolitionists by receiving their petitions or referring 
the petitions to committees? What was the estimate Calhoun put 
on the ability and importance of the Abolitionists? By what means 
were they advancing their ideas? What did he think would be the 
result of this process unless it was checked, on the sentiment of the 
North toward the South? On the permanence of the Union? What 
did Calhoun think had been the effect of American slavery on the 
negro race? On the white race? State exactly under what cir- 
cumstances Calhoun thought slavery a "positive good." Can you 
state anything in the present relations between whites and blacks, 
which, in your judgment, tends to support his conclusions or which 
might be so interpreted? Did Calhoun think that a civilized so- 
ciety had ever existed in which a few non-producers did not live 
on the labor of the great mass? Admitting this to be so, what ad- 
vantages did Calhoun think that the slave system had both for 
masters and slaves over systems of free labor? In what sense were 
the political institutions of the South "free"? Does this speech 
anywhere raise the question as to whether it is morally right or 
wrong for one man to enslave another and to live off his labor? 
Contrast this with Lincoln's attitude toward slavery. 



XXXV 

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS ON SLAVERY 

John Quincy Adams after his defeat for reelection to the 
Presidency was elected a member of the House of Representa- 
tives in 1831 and retained his seat until his death in 1848. In 
Congress he was an unflinching opponent of the pro-slavery 
party which was taking form during his term of service. The 
two extracts from his diary illustrate the attitude of anti- 
slavery men who had no sympathy with Garrison's insistence on 
immediate abolition. As much aware as Garrison of the incom- 
patibility of slavery with democratic ideas of the rights of man, 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 213 

and as much convinced as Garrison of the wickedness of slav- 
ery, Adams considered Garrison's insistence on immediate aboli- 
tion so hopeless as to be ridiculous. At the same time the vio- 
lent intolerance of the South in resenting all attacks on slavery, 
and the supineness with which the men of the North accepted 
Southern domination increasingly aroused his wrath, disgust, 
and despair. 

August i8th, 18^ j. . . . There is something extraordinary' 
in the present condition of parties throughout the Union. 
Slavery and democracy, especially the democracy founded, 
as ours is, upon the rights of man, would seem to be in- 
compatible with each other. And yet at this time the 
democracy of the country is supported chiefly, if not en- 
tirely, by slavery. There is a small, shallow, and en- 
thusiastic party preaching the abolition of slavery upon the 
principles of extreme democracy ; but the democratic spirit 
and the popular feeling is everywhere against them. There 
have been riots at Washington not much inferior in 
atrocity to those at Baltimore. ... In the State of ]\Iis- 
sissippi they have hanged up several persons for circulating 
abolition pamphlets. In Charleston, South Carolina, the 
principal men of the State, with the late Governor, Hayne, 
at their head, seize upon the mails, with the cooperation 
of the Postmaster himself, and purify it of the abolition 
pamphlets ; and the Postmaster-General, Amos Kendall, 
neither approves nor disapproves of this proceeding. At 
Washington, a man named Crandall had been imprisoned 
for circulating incendiary pamphlets, and in Halifax 
County, Virginia, a man named David F. Robertson, a 
Scotch teacher, was in danger of his life, because another 
man named Robertson was suspected of having dropped 
in a steamboat the first number of a newspaper printed at 
New York with the title of Human Rights. In Boston, 
there is a call for a town-meeting, signed by more than 
five hundred names, with H. G. Otis and P. C. Brooks at 
their head. This meeting is to be held next Friday, and is 
to pass resolutions against the abolitionists to soothe and 



214 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

conciliate the temper of the Southern slave-holders. All 
this is democracy and the rights of man. 

March 2gth, 1841. ... I am yet to revise for publication 
my argument in the case of the Amistad ^ Africans ; and 
in merely glancing over the slave-trade papers lent me by 
Mr. Fox, I find impulses of duty upon my own conscience 
which I cannot resist, while on the other hand are the 
magnitude, the danger, the insurmountable burden of labor 
to be encountered in the undertaking to touch upon the 
slave-trade. No one else will undertake it ; no one but a 
spirit unconquerable by man, woman, or fiend can under- 
take it but with the heart of martyrdom. The world, the 
flesh, and all the devils in hell are arrayed against any 
man who now in this North American Union shall dare 
to join the standard of Almighty God to put down the 
African slave-trade ; and what can I, upon the verge of my 
seventy- fourth birthday, with a shaking hand, a darkening 
eye, a drowsy brain, and with all my faculties dropping 
from me one by one, as the teeth are dropping from my 
head — what can I do for the cause of God and man, for 
the progress of human emancipation, for the suppression 
of the African slave-trade? Yet my conscience presses 
me on ; let me but die upon the breach. 

Memoirs of John Qiiincy Adams, Vol. IX, p. 255 ; Vol. 
X» P- 453- J- B- Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1874. 

1 Certain negroes had been imported from Africa to Cuba where 
they were put on board the Amistad, which sailed from Havana to 
Puerto Principe. The slaves rose and seized the vessel ; it was 
finally taken off Long Island by a United States warship. The 
Spanish government urged the return of the slaves to their Spanish 
masters, but the question arose as to whether they were not free even 
by Spanish law which recognized the unlawfulness of the trade. 
The case finally went to the Supreme Court, where Adams argued 
the cause of the slaves and secured their freedom. 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 215 

XXXVI 

A FAVORABLE VIEV\r OF THE SLAVE SYSTEM ^ 

His plantation was considered a model one, and was vis- 
ited by planters anxious to learn his methods. He was 
asked how he made his negroes do good work. His answer 
was that a laboring man could do more work and better 
work in five and a half days than in six. He used to give 
the half of Saturdays to his negroes, unless there was a 
great press of work; but a system of rewards was more 
efficacious than any other method. He distributed prizes 
of money among his cotton-pickers every week during the 
season, which lasted four or five months. One dollar was 
the first prize, a Mexican coin valued at eighty-seven and 
a half cents the second, seventy-five cents the third, and so 
on, down to the smallest prize, a small Mexican coin called 
picayune, which was valued at six and a quarter cents. 
The decimal nomenclature was not in use there. The coins 
were spoken of as '' bits." . . . The master gave money 
to all who worked well for the prizes, whether they won 
them or not. When one person picked six hundred pounds 
in a day, a five-dollar gold-piece was the reward. On most 
other plantations four hundred pounds or three hundred and 
fifty or three hundred was considered a good day's work, 
but on the Burleigh place many picked five hundred pounds. 
All had to be picked free of trash. No one could do this 
who had not been trained in childhood. To get five hun- 
dred pounds a picker had to use both hands at once. Those 
who went into the cotton-fields after they were grown only 
knew how to pull out cotton by holding on to the stalk with 
one hand and picking it out with the other. Two hundred 
pounds a day would be a liberal estimate of what the most 
industrious could do in this manner. A very tall and 
lithe young w^oman, one of mammy's " Brer Billy's " chil- 

^For introductory remarks see Selection XXVII. 



2l6 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

dren, was the best cotton-picker at Burleigh. She picked 
two rows at a time, going down the middle with both arms 
extended and grasping the cotton bolls with each hand. 
Some of the younger generation learned to imitate this. 
At Christmas Nelly's share of the prize money was some- 
thing over seventeen dollars. Her pride in going up to 
the master's desk to receive it, in the presence of the as- 
sembled negroes, as the acknowledged leader of the cotton- 
pickers, was a matter of as great interest to the white 
family as to her own race. 

Susan Dabney Smedes : A Southern Planter, pp. 31- 
32. London, 1889. 

Questions 

What was the system of rewards used by Col. Dabney? How 
efficacious did it seem to be? Compare this with the statement 
quoted from Olmsted in regard to rewards and punishments. {See 
Selection XXXVII.) 

XXXVII 
A NORTHERNER'S VIEW OF SLAVERY 

To the generation that has grown up since the Civil War 
Frederick Law Olmsted is mainly known as a landscape archi- 
tect. He made several trips through the South as a news- 
paper correspondent in the late fifties. His accounts of his 
experiences and observations collected in several books, be- 
sides the one from which this extract is taken, give us a picture 
of slavery and of social and economic conditions in the Slave 
States, as seen through the eyes of a Northern farm owner, 
who though hostile to slavery tried to see it as it w^as and 
to record its results fairly. In considering his conclusions al- 
lowance should be made for the effect of his pet theory, namely, 
that for cotton growing free labor would be more efficient all in 
all than slave labor. In choosing the following extracts, omis- 
sion has been made of his accounts of what he saw of the seamy 
side of slavery. The title of the work quoted. The Cotton 
Kingdom^ introduces us to American slavery in its last phase; 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 2VJ 

the price of slaves and the conditions of slavery throughout the 
South depended in large measure on the degree of profit in 
growing cotton with slave labor on a comparatively few 
big plantations. 

Chapter I. The Present Crisis. 

My own observation of the real condition of the people 
of our Slave States, gave me, on the contrary, an impres- 
sion that the cotton monopoly in some way did them more 
harm than good; and, although the written narration of 
what I saw was not intended to set this forth, upon review- 
ing it for the present publication, I find the impression has 
become a conviction. . . . 

Coming directly from my farm in New York to Eastern 
Virginia, I was satisfied, after a few weeks' observation, 
that the most of the people lived very poorly ; that the pro- 
portion of men improving their condition was much less 
than in any Northern community ; and that the natural 
resources of the land were strangely unused, or were used 
with poor economy. . . . 

I soon ascertained that a much larger number of hands, 
at much larger aggregate wages, was commonly reckoned 
to be required to accomplish certain results, than would 
have been the case at the North. ... I compared notes 
with every Northern man I met who had been living for 
some time in Virginia, and some I found able to give me 
quite exact statements of personal experience, with which, 
in the cases they mentioned, it could not be doubted that 
laborers costing, all things considered, the same wages, had 
taken four times as long to accomplish certain tasks of rude 
work in Virginia as at the North, and that in house service, 
four servants accomplished less, while they required vastly 
more looking after, than one at the North. . . . 

. . . The following conclusions to which my mind 
tended strongly in the first month, though I did not then 
adopt them altogether with confidence, were established at 
length in my convictions. . . . 



2l8 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

3. Taking infants, aged, invalid, and vicious and knavish 

slaves into account, the ordinary and average cost of 
a certain task of labor is more than double in Vir- 
ginia, what it is in the Free States adjoining. 

4. The use of land and nearly all other resources of 

wealth in Virginia is much less valuable than the use 
of similar property in the adjoining Free States, 
these resources having no real value until labor is 
appHed to them. (The Census returns of 1850 show 
that the sale value of farm lands by the acre in Vir- 
ginia is less than one-third the value of farm lands 
in the adjoining Free State of Pennsylvania, and 
less than one-fifth than that of the farm lands of the 
neighboring Free State of New Jersey.) 

5. Beyond the bare necessities of existence, poor shelter, 

poor clothing, and the crudest diet, the mass of the 
citizen class of Virginia earn very little and are very 
poor — immeasurably poorer than the mass of the 
people of the adjoining Free States. 

6. So far as this poverty is to be attributed to personal 

constitution, character, and choice, it is not the re- 
sult of climate. 

7. What is true of Virginia is measurably true of all the 

border Slave States, though in special cases the re- 
sistance of slavery to a competition of free labor is 
more easily overcome. In proportion as this is the 
case, the cost of production is less, the value of pro- 
duction greater, the comfort of the people is greater; 
they are advancing in wealth as they are in intelli- 
gence, which is the best form or result of wealth. 

I went on my way into the so-called Cotton States, within 
which I traveled over, first and last, at least three thousand 
miles of roads, from which not a cotton plant was to be 
seen, and the people living by the side of which certainly 
had not been made rich by cotton or anything else. And 
for every mile of roadside upon which I saw any evidence 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 219 

of cotton production, I am sure that I saw a hundred of 
forest or waste land, with only now and then an acre or 
two of poor corn half smothered in weeds; for every rich 
man's house, I am sure that I passed a dozen shabby and 
half-furnished cottages and at least a hundred cabins — 
mere hovels, such as none but a poor farmer would house 
his cattle in at the North. . . . 

But, much cotton is produced in the Cotton States, and 
by the labour of somebody; much cotton is sold and some- 
body must be paid for it; there are rich people; there are 
good markets ; there is hospitality, refinement, virtue, cour- 
age, and urbanity at the South. All this is proverbially 
true. Who produces the cotton? who is paid for it? 
where are, and who. are, the rich and gentle people? 

I can answer in part at least. 

I have been on plantations on the Mississippi, the fitd 
River, and the Brazos Bottoms, whereon I was assured 
that ten bales of cotton to each average prime field-hand 
had been raised. The soil was a perfect garden mold, well 
drained and guarded by levees against the floods ; it was 
admirably tilled ; I have seen but few Northern farms so 
well tilled ; the laborers were, to a large degree, tall, slender, 
sinewy, young men, who worked from dawn to dusk, not 
with spirit, but with steadiness and constancy. . . . They 
had the best sort of gins and presses, so situated that from 
them cotton bales could be rolled in five minutes to steam- 
boats, bound direct to the ports on the gulf. They were 
superintended by skilful and vigilant overseers. These 
plantations were all large, so large as to yet contain much 
fresh land, ready to be worked as soon as the cultivated 
fields gave out in fertility. If it was true that ten bales 
of cotton to the hand had been raised on them, then their 
net profit for the year had been, not less than two hundred 
and fifty dollars for each hand employed. Even at seven 
bales to the hand the profits of cotton planting are enor- 
mous. . . . And a great many large plantations do pro- 
duce seven bales to the hand for years in succession. A 



220 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

great many more produce seven bales occasionally. A few 
produce even ten bales occasionally, though by no means as 
often as is reported. 

. . . There are millions of acres of land yet untouched, 
which if leveed and drained and fenced, and well culti- 
vated, might be made to produce with good luck seven or 
more bales to the hand. It would cost comparatively little 
to accomplish it — one lucky crop would repay all the out- 
lay for land and improvements — if it were not for '' the 
hands." The supply of hands is limited. . . . And so the 
price of good laborers is constantly gambled up to a point, 
where, if they produce ten bales to the hand, the pur- 
chaser will be as fortunate as he who draws the high prize 
of the lottery; where, if they produce seven bales to the 
hand, he will still be in luck ; where, if rot, or worm, or 
floods, or untimely rains or frosts occur, reducing the crop 
to one or two bales to the hand, as is often the case, the 
purchaser will have drawn a blank. 

That, all things considered, the value of the labour of 
slaves does not, on an average, by any means justify the 
price paid for it, is constantly asserted by the planters, and 
it is true. At least beyond question it is true, and I think 
that I have shown why, that there is no difficulty in finding 
purchasers for all the good slaves that can be got by trad- 
ers, at price considerably more than they are worth for the 
production of cotton under ordinary circnmstances. The 
supply being limited, those who grow cotton on the most 
productive soils, and with the greatest advantages in all 
other respects, not only can afford to pay more than others, 
for all the slaves which can be brought into market, but 
they are driven to a ruinous competition among themselves, 
and slaves thus get a fictitious value like stocks " in a 
corner. . . ." 

Chapter III. Virginia — Glimpses by Railroad. 

A well-informed capitalist and slave-holder remarked, that 
negroes could not be employed in cotton factories. I said 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 221 

that I understood they were so in Charleston, and some 
other places at the South. 

" It may be so, yet," he answered, " but they will have 
to give it up." 

The reason was, he said, that the negro could never be 
trained to exercise judgment ; he cannot be made to use his 
mind; he always depends on machinery doing its own 
work, and cannot be made to watch it. He neglects it 
until something is broken or there is great waste. *' We 
have tried rewards and punishments, but it makes no dif- 
ference. It's his nature and you cannot change it. All 
men are indolent and have a disinclination to labor, but 
this is a great deal stronger in the African race than in 
any other. In working niggers, we must always calculate 
that they will not labor at all except to avoid punishment, 
and they will never do more than just enough to save them- 
selves from being punished, and no amount of punishment 
will prevent their working carelessly and indifferently. It 
always seems on the plantation as if they took pains to 
break all the tools and spoil all the cattle that they possibly 
can, even when they know they'll be directly punished 
for it." 

As to rewards, he said, " They only want to support 
life: they will not work for anything more; and in this 
country it would be hard to prevent their getting that." 

Chapter VI. South Carolina, and Georgia, Surveyed. 

My directions not having been sufficiently explicit, I rode 
in, by a private lane, to one of these. It consisted of some 
thirty neatly-whitewashed cottages, with a broad avenue, 
planted with Pride-of-China trees between them. 

The cottages were framed buildings, boarded on the out- 
side, with shingle roofs and brick chimneys ; they stood 
fifty feet apart, with gardens and pig-yards, enclosed by 
palings, between them. At one, which was evidently the 
" sick house," or hospital, there were several negroes of 
both sexes, wrapped in blankets, and reclining on the door- 



222 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

steps or on the ground, basking in the sunshine. Some of 
them looked ill, but all were chatting and laughing as I rode 
up to make an inquiry. I learned that it was not the 
plantation I was intending to visit, and received a direction, 
as usual, so indistinct and incorrect that it led me wrong. 

At another plantation which I soon afterwards reached, 
I found the " settlement " arranged in the same way, the 
cabins only being of a slightly different form. In the mid- 
dle of one row was a well-house, and opposite it, on the 
other row, was a mill-house, with stones, at which the 
negroes grind their corn. It is a kind of pestle and 
mortar; and I was informed afterwards that the negroes 
prefer to take their allowance of corn and crack it for 
themselves, rather than to receive meal, because they think 
the mill-ground meal does not make as sweet bread. 

At the head of the settlement, in a garden looking down 
the street, was an overseer's house, and here the road 
divided, running each way at right angles ; on one side to 
barns and a landing on the river, on the other toward the 
mansion of the proprietor. . . . 

At the upper end was the owner's mansion, with a cir- 
cular court-yard around it, and an irregular plantation of 
great trees ; one of the oaks, as I afterwards learned, seven 
feet in diameter of trunk, and covering with its branches a 
circle of one hundred and twenty feet in diameter. As I 
approached it, a smart servant came out to take my horse. 
I obtained from him a direction to the residence of the 
gentleman I was searching for, and rode away, glad that 
I had stumbled into so charming a place. . . . 

The plantation which contains Mr. X's winter resi- 
dence has but a small extent of rice land, the greater part 
of it being reclaimed upland swamp soil, suitable for the 
culture of Sea Island cotton. The other plantation con- 
tains over five hundred acres of rice-land, fitted for irri- 
gation ; the remainder is unusually fertile reclaimed upland 
swamp, and some hundred acres of it are cultivated for 
maize and Sea Island cotton. 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 223 

There is a " negro settlement " on each ; but both plan- 
tations, although a mile or two apart, are worked together 
as one, under one overseer — the hands being drafted from 
one to another as their labor is required. Somewhat over 
seven hundred acres are at the present time under the 
plovv^ in the two plantations : the whole number of negroes 
is two hundred, and they are reckoned to be equal to about 
one hundred prime hands — an unusual strength for that 
number of all classes. . . . 

The house-servants are more intelligent, understand and 
perform their duties better, and are more appropriately 
dressed than any I have seen before. The labor required 
of them is light, and they are treated with much more con- 
sideration for their health and comfort than is usually 
given to that of free domestics. They live in brick cabins, 
adjoining the house and stables, and one of these into which 
I have looked is neatly and comfortably furnished. Sev- 
eral of the house-servants, as is usual, are mulattoes, and 
good-looking. The mulattoes are generally preferred for 
indoor occupations. Slaves brought up to housework dread 
to be employed at field-labour ; and those accustomed to the 
comparatively unconstrained life of the negro-settlement, 
detest the close control and careful movements required 
of the house-servants. It is a punishment for a lazy field- 
hand, to employ him in menial duties at the house, as it is to 
set a sneaking sailor to do the work of a cabin-servant ; 
and it is equally a punishment to a neglectful house-serv- 
ant, to banish him to the field-gangs. . . . 

It is a custom with Mr. X, when on the estate, to look 
each day at all the work going on, inspect the buildings, 
boats, embankments, and sluice-ways, and examine the 
sick. Yesterday I accompanied him in one of these daily 
rounds. 

After a ride of several miles through the woods, in the 
rear of the plantations we came to his largest negro-settle- 
ment. There was a street, or common, two hundred feet 
wide, on which the cabins of the negroes fronted. Each 



224 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

cabin was a framed building, the walls boarded and white- 
washed on the outside, lathed and plastered within, the 
roof shingled ; forty-two feet long, twenty-one feet wide, 
divided into two family tenements, each twenty-one by 
twenty-one; each tenement divided into three rooms — one 
the common household apartment, twenty-one by ten ; each 
of the others (bedrooms), ten by ten. There was a brick 
fire-place in the middle of the long side of each living-room, 
the chimneys rising in one, in the middle of the roof. 
Besides these rooms, each tenement had a cock-loft, entered 
by steps from the household room. Each tenement is 
occupied, on an average, by five persons. There were in 
them closets, with locks and keys, and a varying quantity of 
rude furniture. Each cabin stood two hundred feet from 
the next, and the street in front of them being two hundred 
feet wide, they were just that distance apart each way. 
The people were nearly all absent at work, and had locked 
their outer doors, taking the keys with them. Each cabin 
has a front and back door, and each room a window, closed 
by a wooden shutter, swinging outward, on hinges. Be- 
tween each tenement and the next house, is a small piece of 
ground, inclosed with palings, in which are coops of fowl 
with chickens. . . . There were a great many fowls in the 
street. The negroes' swine are allowed to run in the woods, 
each owner having his own distinguished by a peculiar 
mark. In the rear of the yards were gardens — a half- 
acre to each family. Internally the cabins appeared dirty 
and disordered, which was rather a pleasant indication that 
their home life was not much interfered with, though I 
found certain police regulations were enforced. . . . 

From the settlement, we drove to the " mill " — not a 
flouring mill, though I believe there is a run of stones in 
it — but a monster barn, with more extensive and better 
machinery for threshing and storing rice, driven by a steam- 
engine, than I have ever seen used for grain before. Ad- 
joining the mill-house were shops and sheds, in which 
blacksmiths, carpenters, and other mechanics — all slaves, 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 225 

belonging to Mr. X — were at work. He called my at- 
tention to the excellence of their workmanship, and said 
that they exercised as much ingenuity and skill as the 
ordinary mechanics that he was used to employ in New 
England. . . . 

The plowmen got their dinner at this time: those not us- 
ing horses do not usually dine till they have finished their 
tasks ; but this, I beUeve, is optional with them. They com- 
mence work, I was told, at sunrise, and at about eight 
o'clock have breakfast brought to them in the field, each 
hand having left a bucket with the cook for that purpose. 
All who are working in connection, leave their work to- 
gether, and gather about a fire, where they generally spend 
about half an hour. The provisions furnished, consist 
mainly of meal, rice, and vegetables, with salt and molasses, 
and occasionally bacon, fish, and coffee. The allowance is 
a peck of meal, or an equivalent quantity of rice per week, 
to each working hand, old or young, besides small stores. 
Mr. X says that he has lately given a less amount of meat 
than is now usual on plantations, having observed that the 
general health of the negroes is not as good as formerly, 
when no meat at all was customarily given them. (The 
general impression among planters is, that the negroes work 
much better for being supplied with three or four pounds 
of bacon a week.). . . 

The field-hands are all divided into four classes, accord- 
ing to their physical capacities. The children beginning 
as '' quarter hands," advancing to " half hands," and then 
to '' three-quarter hands : " and finally, when mature, and 
able-bodied, healthy, and strong, to " full hands." As they 
decline in strength, from age, sickness, or other cause, they 
retrograde in the scale, and proportionately less labor is 
required of them. Many, of naturally weak frame, never 
are put among the full hands. Finally, the aged are left 
out at the annual classification, and no more regular field- 
work is required of them, although they are generally pro- 
vided with some light, sedentary occupation. . . . 
16 



226 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

The whole plantation [one near Natchez], including the 
swamp land around it and owned with it, covered several 
square miles. It was four miles from the settlement to the 
nearest neighbor's house. There were between thirteen 
and fourteen hundred acres under cultivation with cotton, 
corn, and other hoed crops, and two hundred hogs run- 
ning at large in the swamp. It was the intention that corn 
and pork enough should be raised to keep the slaves and 
cattle. This year, however, it has been found necessary 
to purchase largely, and such was probably usually the 
case, though the overseer intimated the owner had been 
displeased, and he " did not mean to be caught so bad 
again." . . . 

There were 135 slaves, big and little, of which 6y went 
to field regularly — equal, the overseer thought, to fully 
60 prime hands. Besides these, there were 3 mechanics 
(blacksmith, carpenter, and wheel-wright), 2 seamstresses, 
I cook, I stable servant, i hog-tender, i teamster, i house 
servant (overseer's cook). . . . These were all first-class 
hands ; most of them would be worth more, if they were 
for sale, the overseer said, than the best field-hands. There 
was also a driver of the hoe-gang who did not labor per- 
sonally, and a foreman of the plow-gang. These two acted 
as petty officers in the field, and alternately in the quar- 
ters. . . . 

We found in the field thirty plows, moving together, 
turning the earth from the cotton plants, and from thirty to 
forty hoers, the latter mainly women, with a black driver 
walking about among them with a whip, which he often 
cracked at them, sometimes allowing the lash to fall lightly 
upon their shoulders. He was constantly urging them also 
with his voice. . . . 

I asked at what time they began to work in the morning. 
" Well," said the overseer, " I do better by my niggers than 
most. I keep 'em right smart at their work while they 
do work, but I generally knock 'em off at 8 o'clock in the 
morning, Saturdays, and give 'em all the rest of the day 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 22'J 

to themselves, and I always gives 'em Sundays, the whole 
day. Pickin' time, and when the crap's bad in grass, I 
sometimes keep 'em to it till about sunset, Saturdays, but 
I never work 'em Sundays." 

" How early do you start them out in the morning, 
usually? " 

" Well, I don't never start my niggers 'fore daylight, 
'less 'tis in pickin' time, then maybe I get 'em out a quarter 
of an hour before. But I keep 'em right smart to work 
through the day." He showed an evident pride in the 
vigilance of his driver, and called my attention to the large 
area of ground already hoed over that morning; well 
hoed, too, as he said. 

" At what time do they eat ? " I asked. They ate " their 
snacks " in their cabins, he said, before they came out in 
the morning (that is before daylight — the sun rising at 
this time at a little before five, and the day dawning, prob- 
ably, an hour earlier) ; then at twelve o'clock their dinner 
was brought to them in a cart — one cart for the plow- 
gang and one for the hoe-gang. . . . All worked as late as 
they could see to work well, and had no more food nor 
rest until they returned to their cabins. At half-past nine 
o'clock, the drivers, each on an alternate night, blew a 
horn, and at ten visited every cabin to see that its occupants 
were at rest, and not lurking about and spending their 
strength in fooleries, and that the fires were safe — a very 
unusual precaution; the negroes are generally at liberty 
after their day's work is done till they are called in the 
morning. . . . The allowance of food was a peck of corn 
and four pounds of pork per week, each. When they could 
not get "greens" (any vegetables) he generally gave them 
five pounds of pork. They had gardens, and raised a good 
deal for themselves ; they also had fowls, and usually plenty 
of eggs. ... 

This was the only large plantation I had an opportunity 
of seeing at all closely, over which I was not chiefly con- 
ducted by an educated gentleman and slave owner, by whose 



228 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

habitual impressions and sentiments my own were prob- 
ably somewhat influenced. From what I saw in passing, 
and from what I heard by chance of others, I suppose it to 
have been a very favorable specimen of those plantations 
on which the owners do not reside. A merchant of the 
vicinity recently in New York tells me that he supposes it 
to be a fair enough example of plantations of its class. 

F. L. Olmsted: The Cotton Kingdom, Vol. I, pp. 8-16, 
100, 233-46; Vol. II, pp. 176-179. Mason Brothers, New 
York, 1861. 

Questions 

What were Olmsted s conclusions as to the comparative prosperity 
and comfort of Whites, North and South? How much did Olm- 
sted think was the difference in cost between work of the same 
kind done by slaves in the South and by free workmen in the 
North? How much of the land of the Cotton States would you 
judge from Olmsted was actually used in raising cotton? Under 
what conditions could seven and ten bales of cotton to the hand 
be grown throughout the South? Was it for lack of fertile land or 
for lack of money to invest in " hands " that raising cotton on this 
scale could not be more general? With how much certainty could 
one calculate on such a yield? Explain Olmsted's statement that 
the value of slave labor did not in general justify the price paid 
for slaves. How did the "gambling instinct'' then lead planters to 
pay unjustifiable prices for slaves? State the reasons why slaves 
could not be employed in factories using machinery? Could any- 
thing be done to employ them by a system of rewards and punish- 
ments? Do you find anything in this extract to disprove the state- 
ment on page 221? Anything in other selections? (Cf. Smedes.) 
Were these reasons applicable to slave labor or to negro labor? Ex- 
plain the distinction. Are negroes now commonly employed in fac- 
tories? Describe the negro settlements told of in the three planta- 
tions that are mentioned. How many prime hands could be counted 
on to two hundred negro slaves? Could a master then depend on 
all the slaves he owned for an equal amount of labor? Explain the 
terms "quarter" "half" and "whole" hands. What privileges 
were allowed the negroes on Mr. X's plantation? What were their 
hours of work? Their rations? What success did he have in se- 
curing mechanical work from slaves? Describe the organization 
of the hands on the last plantation described? How many prime 
hands were there? How long were the negroes worked? What 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 229 

precautions were taken to see that they were quiet in their cabins? 
What was the weekly allowance of food? 



XXXVIII 
CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION ON SLAVERY 

In the selections here given we have a number of successive 
steps in Congressional legislation concerning slavery. The 
first act, the Missouri Compromise, lasted for a generation, 
1820- 1854, and v^^as based on the supposition that Congress 
could exclude slavery from the Territories; the last act, the 
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854, provided for the repeal of the cen- 
tral provision of the Missouri Compromise. The report of the 
Committee of Thirteen contains the essential proposals which 
entered into the Compromise of 1850. 



THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE 

An Act to authorize the people of the Missouri Territory to 
form a Constitution and State government, and for the 
admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing 
with the original States, and to prohibit slavery in certain 
Territories. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, 
That the inhabitants of that portion of the Missouri Terri- 
tory included within the boundaries hereinafter designated, 
be, and they are hereby, authorized to form for themselves 
a constitution and State government, and to assume such 
name as they shall deem proper; and the said State, when 
formed, shall be admitted into the Union, upon an equal 
footing with the original States, in all respects whatsoever. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the said State 
shall consist of all the territory included within the fol- 
lowing boundaries, to wit : Beginning in the middle of the 



230 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Mississippi River, on the parallel of thirty-six degrees of 
north latitude ; thence west, along that parallel of latitude, 
to the St. Francois River; thence up, and following the 
course of that river, in the middle of the main channel 
thereof, to the parallel of latitude of thirty-six degrees and 
thirty minutes ; thence west, along the same, to a point 
where the said parallel is intersected by a meridian line pass- 
ing through the middle of the mouth of the Kansas River, 
where the same empties into the Missouri River ; thence, 
from the point aforesaid north, along the said meridian line, 
to the intersection of the parallel of latitude which passes 
through the rapids of the River Des Moines, making the 
said line to correspond with the Indian boundary line; 
thence east, from the point of intersection last aforesaid, 
along the said parallel of latitude, to the middle of the 
channel of the main fork of the said River Des Moines; 
thence down and along the middle of the main channel 
of the said River Des Moines, to the mouth of the same, 
where it empties into the Mississippi River; thence, due 
east, to the middle of the main channel of the Mississippi 
River ; thence down, and following the course of the Missis- 
sippi River, in the middle of the main channel thereof, to 
the place of beginning.^ . . . 

Sec. 8. And be if further enacted. That in all that terri- 
tory ceded by France to the United States, under the name 
of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six degrees and 
thirty minutes north latitude, not included within the limits 
of the State, contemplated by this act, slavery and involun- 
tary servitude, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, 
whereof the parties shall have been duly convicted, shall 
be, and is hereby, forever prohibited : Provided ahvays, 

1 Notice the boundary of the State of Missouri at the time the 
State was admitted (See map, page 272, McLaughlin, A History 
of the American Nation.) Compare with its boundary to-day. 
The additional strip was added in 1837. Was this a violation of 
the Missouri Compromise? 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 231 

That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor 
or service is lawfully claimed, in any State or Territory of 
the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed 
and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or 
service as aforesaid. 

Approved, March 6, 1820. 

U, S. Statutes at Large, Vol. Ill, pp. 545, 548. 

B 

EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE 
OF THIRTEEN 

May 8, 1850 

. . . The views and recommendations contained in this 
report may be recapitulated in a few words : 

1. The admission of any new State or States formed out 
of Texas to be postponed until they shall hereafter present 
themselves to be received into the Union, when it will be 
the duty of Congress fairly and faithfully to execute the 
compact with Texas by admitting such new State or 
States ; 

2. The admission forthwith of California into the 
Union, with the boundaries which she has proposed ; ^ 

3. The establishment of territorial governments, without 
the Wilmot proviso, for New Mexico and Utah, embracing 
all the territory recently acquired by the United States 
from Mexico not contained in the boundaries of Cali- 
fornia ; 

4. The combination of these two last-mentioned meas- 
ures in the same bill ; 

5. The establishment of the western and northern bound- 
ary of Texas, and the exclusion from her jurisdiction of 
all New Mexico, with the grant to Texas of a pecuniary 

2 This would amount to the admission of California as a Free 
State. 



232 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

equivalent; and the section for that purpose to be incor- 
porated in the bill admitting California and establishing 
territorial governments for Utah and New Mexico; 

6. More effectual enactments of law to secure the prompt 
delivery of persons bound to service or labor in one State, 
under the laws thereof, who escape into another State ; and 

7. Abstaining from abolishing slavery; but, under a 
heavy penalty, prohibiting the slave trade in the District of 
Columbia. 

Senate Report 12^, 31st Congress, ist Session, p. 11. 



An Act to establish a Territorial Government for Utah 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
That all that part of the territory of the United States in- 
cluded within the following limits, to wit: bounded on the 
west by the State of California, on the north by the Terri- 
tory of Oregon, and on the east by the summit of the 
Rocky Mountains, and on the south by the thirty-seventh 
parallel of north latitude, be, and the same is hereby, created 
into a temporary government, by the name of the Terri- 
tory of Utah ; and, when admitted as a State, the said 
Territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into 
the Union, with or without slavery, as their constitution 
may prescribe at the time of their admission : Provided, 
That nothing in this act contained shall be construed to 
inhibit the government of the United States from dividing 
said Territory into two or more Territories, in such man- 
ner and at such times as Congress shall deem convenient 
and proper, or from attaching any portion of said Territory 
to any other State or Territory of the United States. . . . 

Approved, September 9, 1850. 

U. S. Statutes at Large, Vol. IX, p. 453. 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 233 

D 

TEXAS AND NEW MEXICO 

An Act proposing to the State of Texas the Establishment 
of her Northern and Western Boundaries, the Relinquish- 
ment by the said State of all Territory claimed by her ex- 
terior to said Boundaries, and of all her claims upon the 
United States, and to establish a territorial Government 
for New Mexico. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives of the United States of America in Congress as- 
sembled. That the following propositions shall be, and the 
same hereby are, offered to the State of Texas, which, when 
agreed to by the said State, in an act passed by the general 
assembly, shall be binding and obligatory upon the United 
States, and upon the said State of Texas : Provided, The 
said agreement by the said general assembly shall be given 
on or before the first day of December, eighteen hundred 
and fifty: 

First. The State of Texas will agree that her boundary 
on the north shall commence at the point at which the 
meridian of one hundred degrees west from Greenwich is 
intersected by the parallel of thirty-six degrees thirty 
minutes north latitude, and shall run from said point due 
west to the meridian of one hundred and three degrees 
west from Greenwich; thence her boundary shall run due 
south to the thirty-second degree of north latitude ; thence 
on the said parallel of thirty-two degrees of north latitude 
to the Rio Bravo del Norte, and thence with the channel 
of said river to the Gulf of Mexico. 

Second. The State of Texas cedes to the United States 
all her claim to territory exterior to the limits and bound- 
aries which she agrees to establish by the first article of 
this agreement. 



234 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Third. The State of Texas relinquishes all claim upon 
the United States for liability of the debts of Texas, and 
for compensation or indemnity for the surrender to the 
United States of her ships, forts, arsenals, custom-houses, 
custom-house revenue, arms and munitions of war, and 
public buildings with their sites, which became the prop- 
erty of the United States at the time of the annexa- 
tion. 

Fourth. The United States, in consideration of said 
establishment of boundaries, cession of claim to territory, 
and relinquishment of claims, will pay to the State of 
Texas the sum of ten millions of dollars in a stock bearing 
five per cent, interest, and redeemable at the end of four- 
teen years, the interest payable half-yearly at the treasury 
of the United States. . . . 

Fifth. [Article.] . . . 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That all that portion 
of the Territory of the United States bounded as follows: 
Beginning at a point in the Colorado River where the 
boundary line with the Republic of Mexico crosses the 
same; thence eastwardly with the said boundary line to the 
Rio Grande; thence following the main channel of said 
river to the parallel of the thirty-second degree of north 
latitude ; thence east with said degree to its intersection 
with the one hundred and third degree of longitude west 
of Greenwich ; thence north with said degree of longitude 
to the parallel of thirty-eighth degree of north latitude; 
thence west with said parallel to the summit of the Sierra 
Madre; thence south with the crest of said mountains to 
the thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude; thence west 
with said parallel to its intersection with the boundary 
line of the State of California; thence with said boundary 
line to the place of beginning — be, and the same is hereby, 
erected into a temporary government, by the name of the 
Territory of New Mexico : Provided, That nothing in this 
act contained shall be construed to inhibit the government 
of the United States from dividing said Territory into two 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 235 

or more Territories, in such manner and at such times as 
Congress shall deem convenient and proper, or from at- 
taching any portion thereof to any other Territory or 
State: And provided, further, That, when admitted as a 
State, the said Territory, or any portion of the same, shall 
be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as 
their constitution may prescribe at the time of their ad- 
mission. . . . 

Approved, September 9, 1850. 

U. S, Statutes at Large, Vol. IX, pp. 446-447. 



An Act to suppress the Slave Trade in the District of 

Columbia. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives of the United States of America in Congress as- 
sembled, That from and after the first day of January, 
eighteen hundred and fifty-one, it shall not be lawful to 
bring into the District of Columbia any slave whatever, 
for the purpose of being sold, or for the purpose of being 
placed in depot, to be subsequently transferred to any other 
State or place to be sold as merchandize. And if any 
slave shall be brought into the said District by its owner, 
or by the authority or consent of its owner, contrary to 
the provisions of this act, such slave shall thereupon be- 
come liberated and free. 

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted. That it shall and may 
be lawful for each of the corporations of the cities of 
Washington and Georgetown, from time to time, and as 
often as may be necessary, to abate, break up, and abolish 
any depot or place of confinement of slaves brought into 
the said District as merchandize, contrary to the provisions 
of this act, by such appropriate means as may appear to 
either of the said corporations expedient and proper. And 



236 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

the same power is hereby vested in the Levy Court of 
Washington county, if any attempt shall be made, within 
its jurisdictional limits, to establish a depot or place of 
confinement for slaves brought into the said District as 
merchandize for sale contrary to this act. 

Approved, September 20, 1850. 

U. S. Statutes at Large, Vol. IX, pp. 467-8. 



THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW 

There had been an Act of Congress for the return of fugitive 
slaves passed in 1793. It had, however, not been very effective 
and a master had little chance by any ordinary legal process 
of recovering runaway slaves that had reached the Northern 
States. The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was one of the most 
outrageous acts against personal liberty that ever disgraced our 
statute book. It gave any unscrupulous man who could get an 
affidavit from a justice of the peace in his neighborhood to the 
effect that a certain man was his runaway slave the right to 
remove the man claimed from the State where he resided with- 
out giving him the opportunity of proving the falseness of the 
affidavit or even of being heard in his own behalf. Once he 
was in the State from which it was claimed that he had fled 
of course he might establish his claim to freedom. But the 
laws of Slave States made this very difficult; and a person re- 
moved from a State under the Fugitive Slave Law must do it 
at a distance from his friends and those who could testify in 
his behalf. The law put a premium on the work of the kid- 
naper of free men. Notice that act nowhere mentions that its 
operation is confined to men of color. The case suggested in 
the question below may seem absurd, but it might easily have 
taken place under the Act. The law was openly defied and re- 
sisted in the North, especially after 1854. 

An Act to amend, and supplementary to, the Act entitled 
''An Act respecting Fugitives from Justice, and Persons 
escaping from the Service of their Masters," approved 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 2^^ 

February twelfth, one thousand seven hundred and ninety- 
three. 

Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That when a person 
held to service or labor in any State or Territory of the 
United States, has heretofore or shall hereafter escape into 
another State or Territory of the United States, the person 
or persons to whom such service or labor may be due, or 
his, her, or their agent or attorney, . . . may pursue and 
reclaim such fugitive person, either by procuring a warrant 
from some one of the courts, judges, or commissioners 
aforesaid, of the proper circuit, district, or county, for the 
apprehension of such fugitive from service or labor, or by 
seizing and arresting such fugitive, where the same can be 
done without process, and by taking, or causing such per- 
son to be taken, forthwith before such court, judge, or 
commissioner, whose duty it shall be to hear and determine 
the case of such claimant in a summary manner ; and upon 
satisfactory proof being made, by deposition or affidavit, 
in writing to be taken and certified by such court, judge, 
or commissioner, or by other satisfactory testimony, duly 
taken and certified by some court, magistrate, justice of the 
peace, or other legal officer authorized to administer an 
oath and take depositions under the laws of the State or 
Territory from which such person owing service or labor 
may have escaped, with a certificate of such magistracy or 
other authority, as aforesaid, with the seal of the proper 
court or officer thereto attached, which seal shall be suffi- 
cient to establish the competency of the proof, and with 
proof, also by affidavit, of the identity of the person whose 
service or labor is claimed to be due as aforesaid, that the 
person so arrested does in fact owe service or labor to the 
person or persons claiming him or her, in the State or 
Territory from which such fugitive may have escaped as 
aforesaid, and that said person escaped, to make out and 
deliver to such claimant, his or her agent or attorney, a 
certificate setting forth the substantial facts as to the serv- 



238 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

ice or labor due from such fugitive to the claimant, and of 
his or her escape from the State or Territory in which such 
service or labor was due, to the State or Territory in which 
he or she was arrested, with authority to such claimant, or 
his or her agent or attorney, to use such reasonable force 
and restraint as may be necessary, under the circumstances 
of the case, to take and remove such fugitive person back 
to the State or Territory whence he or she may have 
escaped as aforesaid. In no trial or hearing under this act 
shall the testimony of such alleged fugitive be admitted in 
evidence; and the certificates in this and the first (fourth) 
section mentioned, shall be conclusive of the right of the 
person or persons in whose favor granted, to remove such 
fugitive to the State or Territory from which he escaped, 
and shall prevent all molestation of such person or persons 
by any process issued by any court, judge, magistrate, or 
other person whomsoever. 

Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That, upon affidavit 
made by the claimant of such fugitive, his agent or at- 
torney, after such certificate has been issued, that he has 
reason to apprehend that such fugitive will be rescued by 
force from his or their possession before he can be taken 
beyond the limits of the State in which the arrest is made, 
it shall be the duty of the officer making the arrest to re- 
tain such fugitive in his custody, and to remove him to the 
State whence he fled, and there to deliver him to said 
claimant, his agent, or attorney. And to this end, the 
officer aforesaid is hereby authorized and required to em- 
ploy so many persons as he may deem necessary to over- 
come such force, and to retain them in his service so long 
as circumstances may require. The said officer and his 
assistants, while so employed, to receive the same compensa- 
tion, and to be allowed the same expenses, as are now 
allowed by law for transportation of criminals, to be certi- 
fied by the judge of the district within which the arrest 
is made, and paid out of the treasury of the United States. 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 239 

Approved, September 18, 1850. 
U, S. Statutes at Large, Vol. IX, pp. 463-465. 



An Act to Organize the Territories of Nebraska and 

Kansas. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
That all that part of the territory of the United States in- 
cluded within the following limits, except such portions 
thereof as are hereinafter expressly exempted from the 
operations of this act, to wit: beginning at a point in the 
Missouri River where the fortieth parallel of north latitude 
crosses the same ; thence west on said parallel to the east 
boundary of the Territory of Utah, on the summit of the 
Rocky Mountains; thence on said summit northward to 
the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude; thence east on 
said parallel to the western boundary of the territory of 
Minnesota ; thence southward on said boundary to the 
Missouri River ; thence down the main channel of said river 
to the place of beginning, be, and the same is hereby, created 
into a temporary government by the name of the Territory 
of Nebraska ; and when admitted as a State or States, the 
said Territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received 
into the Union with or without slavery, as their constitution 
may prescribe at the time of their admission. . . . 

Sec. 14. And be it further enacted, . . . That the Con- 
stitution, and all laws of the United States which are not 
locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect 
within the said Territory of Nebraska as elsewhere within 
the United States, except the eighth section of the act 
preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, 
approved March sixth, eighteen hundred and twenty, which. 



240 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention 
by Congress with slavery in the States and Territories, as 
recognized by the legislation of eighteen hundred and fifty, 
commonly called the Compromise Measures, is hereby de- 
clared inoperative and void; it being the true intent and 
meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any 
Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to 
leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate 
their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only 
to the Constitution of the United States: Provided, That 
nothing herein contained shall be construed to revive or 
put in force any law or regulation which may have existed 
prior to the act of sixth March, eighteen hundred and 
twenty, either protecting, establishing, prohibiting, or 
abolishing slavery. 

Sec. 19. And be it further enacted, That all that part 
of the Territory of the United States included within the 
following limits, except such portions thereof as are here- 
inafter expressly exempted from the operations of this act, 
to wit, beginning at a point on the western boundary of the 
State of Missouri, where the thirty-seventh parallel of 
north latitude crosses the same ; thence west on said parallel 
to the eastern boundary of New Mexico ; thence north on 
said boundary to latitude thirty-eight ; thence following 
said boundary westward to the east boundary of the Terri- 
tory of Utah, on the summit of the Rocky Mountains; 
thence northward on said summit to the fortieth parallel 
of latitude ; thence east on said parallel to the western 
boundary of the State of Missouri; thence south with the 
western boundary of said State to the place of beginning, 
be, and the same is hereby, created into a temporary gov- 
ernment by the name of the Territory of Kansas ; and when 
admitted as a State or States, the said Territory, or any 
portion of the same, shall be received into the Union with 
or without slavery, as their Constitution may prescribe at 
the time of their admission. . . . 



SLAVERY AND ABOLITION 241 

(By a later section, the statements of Section 14 are 
made to cover Kansas Territory.) 

Approved, May 30, 1854. 

U. S. Statutes at Large, Vol. X, p. 277 ff. 

Questions 

Name the provisions of the Compromise of 1850 as the Committee 
of Thirteen reported it. Trace on the map the boundary of Utah 
Territory. Give the provisions of the agreement for the adjust- 
ment of the boundaries of Texas. Trace the boundary of Texas 
as adjusted on the map. Trace the boundary line of New Mexico 
Territory. What were the provisions regarding slavery in the Utah 
and New Mexico Acts? Trace the boundaries of Nebraska Terri- 
tory; of Kansas Territory. Look up the law repealed in Section 
14. What is it usually called? What did the Act state as its pur- 
pose with regard to the extension of slavery? In what two ways 
might a fugitive slave be arrested by his owner? Before what of- 
ficers or courts might the claimant of a fugitive slave take a man 
he had arrested under the Act? How was the court to decide the 
case of the man so brought before it? How was proof that the 
person arrested was the slave of the person causing his arrest to 
be made? Suppose a white man, say Jefferson Davis, had proceeded 
under the forms of the Act, and with an affidavit in his pocket 
(that is with the sworn statement for which the Act provided) had 
gone to Massachusetts and seized a white man, say Daniel Webster, 
claiming that Webster had fled from slavery. What could Web- 
ster do? Could he deny that he was Davis's slave? Were Web- 
ster's friends entitled to rescue him by any lawful means or by 
force? If any attempt was made to rescue him, what recourse did 
Davis have? Now, of course, no one supposed that one white 
man would be seized by another ; the underlying notion was that 
slavery was confined to black men; but as soon as we think of the 
Act's being applied to white men or white women, we get some idea 
of the oppressiveness of the Act. 



17 



PART VII 

THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 

XXXIX 

CALHOUN'S LAST SPEECH 

This speech was read for Calhoun in the Senate, March 4, 
1850, twenty-seven days before his death. It is a cool, dispas- 
sionate analysis of the causes of the breach between North and 
South which men were to patch up for a few years with the 
Compromise of 1850. It centers around two propositions: first, 
that the union between the States depended on accord and 
harmony between their inhabitants; if this good feeling were 
once lost, it were vain to expect the central government to hold 
them together. Second, that, in light of the vital difference be- 
tween the sections on the right or wrong of slavery, a strong 
federal government was impossible; the Union could continue 
to exist only if the South were satisfied that the central govern- 
ment did not have the power that might enable the North to 
use it as an instrument for the abolition of slavery. The 
Union was a union of sections. Each section must feel secure 
in the possession of its own institutions. Calhoun was attached 
to the Union, but he was more attached to the South ; and to the 
South's welfare he believed slavery essential. If then the 
Union and slavery were both to be preserved, the Union must 
be reformed. Like Lincoln, Calhoun saw the contrast between 
slavery and free labor; Lincoln believed that the Union could 
not long endure half slave and half free; Calhoun believed that 
it could endure only under conditions that secured to each sec- 
tion the security and permanence of its own interests — at least 
that slavery must not be uncertain of its fate. The Union, 
therefore, must be a loose and balanced Union. Of more value 
than union was slavery and the rights of the South. 

242 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 243 

I have, Senators, believed from the first that the agi- 
tation of the subject of slavery would, if not prevented by 
some timely and effective measure, end in disunion. En- 
tertaining this opinion, I have on all proper occasions en- 
deavored to call the attention of both the two great parties 
which divide the country to adopt some measure to prevent 
so great a disaster, but without success. The agitation has 
been permitted to proceed, with almost no attempt to re- 
sist it, until it has reached a point when it can no longer be 
disguised or denied that the Union is in danger. You have 
thus had forced upon you the greatest and the gravest 
question that can ever come under your consideration — 
How can the Union be preserved? . . . 

The first question, then, presented for consideration, in 
the investigation I propose to make, in order to obtain such 
knowledge, is, — What is it that has endangered the Union ? 

To this question there can be but one answer, — that the 
immediate cause is the almost universal discontent which 
pervades all the States composing the Southern section of 
the Union. This widely-extended discontent is not of re- 
cent origin. It commenced with the agitation of the 
slavery question, and has been increasing ever since. . . . 

The question then recurs, — V\^hat is the cause of this dis- 
content? It will be found in the belief of the people of 
the Southern States, as prevalent as the discontent itself, 
that they cannot remain as things now are, consistently 
with honor and safety, in the Union. The next question 
to be considered is, — What has caused this belief? 

One of the causes is, undoubtedly, to be traced to the 
long continued agitation of the slave question on the part 
of the North, and the many aggressions which they have 
made on the rights of the South during the time. I will 
not enumerate them at present, as it will be done hereafter 
in its proper place. 

There is another lying back of it — with which this is 
intimately connected — that may be regarded as the great 
and primary cause. This is to be found in the fact that 



244 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

the equilibrium between the two sections, in the Govern- 
ment as it stood when the Constitution was ratified and the 
Government put in action, has been destroyed. At that 
time there was nearly a perfect equilibrium between the 
two, which afforded ample means to each to protect itself 
against the aggression of the other; but, as it now^ stands, 
one section has the exclusive power of controlling the Gov- 
ernment, which leaves the other without any adequate 
means of protecting itself against its encroachment and op- 
pression. . . . 

According to the apportionment under the census of 
1840, there were two hundred and twenty-three members 
of the House of Representatives, of which the Northern 
States had one hundred and thirty-five and the Southern 
States (considering Delaware as neutral) eighty-seven, 
making a difference in favor of the former in the House of 
Representatives of forty-eight. The difference in the 
Senate of two members added to this, gives to the North 
in the electoral college, a majority of fifty. Since the 
census of 1840, four States have been added to the 
Union — Iowa, Wisconsin, Florida and Texas. They 
leave the difference in the Senate as it stood when the 
census was taken ; but add two to the side of the North in 
the House, making the present majority in the House in its 
favor fifty, and in the electoral college fifty-two. 

The result of the whole is to give the Northern section a 
predominance in every department of the Government, and 
thereby concentrate in it the two elements which constitute 
the Federal Government, — majority of States, and a ma- 
jority of their population, estimated in federal numbers. 
Whatever section concentrates the two in itself possesses 
the control of the entire Government. 

But we are just at the close of the sixth decade and the 
commencement of the seventh. The census is to be taken 
this year, which must add greatly to the decided prepon- 
derance of the North in the House of Representatives and 
in the electoral college. The prospect is, also, that a great 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 245 

increase will be added to its present preponderance in the 
Senate, during the period of the decade by the addition of 
new States. . . . The prospect then is, that the two sections 
in the Senate, should the efforts now made to exclude the 
South from the newly acquired territories succeed, will 
stand, before the end of the decade, twenty Northern States 
to fourteen Southern (considering Delaware as neutral), 
and forty Northern Senators to twenty-eight Southern. 
This great increase of Senators, added to the great increase 
of members of the House of Representatives and the elec- 
toral college on the part of the North, which must take 
place under the next decade, will effectually and irretriev- 
ably destroy the equilibrium which existed when the Gov- 
ernment commenced. 

Had this destruction been the operation of time, without 
the interference of Government, the South w^ould have 
had no reason to complain ; but such was not the fact. 
It was caused by the legislation of this Government, which 
was appointed, as the common agent of all, and charged 
with the protection of the interests and security of all. 
The legislation by which it has been effected may be classed 
under three heads. The first is, that series of acts by 
which the South has been excluded from the common terri- 
tory belonging to all the States as members of the Fed- 
eral Union — which have had the effect of extending vastly 
the portion allotted to the Northern section, and restricting 
within narrow limits the portion left the South. The next 
consists in adopting a system of revenue and disbursements, 
by which an undue proportion of the burden of taxation 
has been imposed upon the South, and an undue propor- 
tion of its proceeds appropriated to the North ; and the 
last is a system of political measures by wdiich the 
original character of the Government has been radically 
changed. . . . 

The first of the series of acts by which the South was 
deprived of its due share of the territories, originated with 
the confederacy which preceded the existence of this Gov- 



246 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

ernment. It is to be found in the provision of the Ordi- 
nance of 1787. Its effect was to excUide the South en- 
tirely from that vast and fertile region which lies between 
the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers, now embracing five 
States and one Territory. The next of the series is the 
Missouri Compromise which excluded the South from the 
large portion of Louisiana which lies north of 36° 30', ex- 
cepting what is included in the State of Missouri. The 
last of the series excluded the South from the whole of the 
Oregon Territory. . . . 

To sum up the whole, the United States since they de- 
clared their independence, have acquired 2,373,046 square 
miles of territor}% from which the North will have ex- 
cluded the South, if she should succeed in monopolizing 
the newly acquired territories, about three-fourths of the 
whole, leaving to the South but about one- fourth. . . . 

But while these measures [the tariff acts] were destroy- 
ing the equilibrium between the two sections, the action of 
the Government was leading to a radical change in its char- 
acter, by concentrating all the power of the system in it- 
self. . . . That the Government claims, and practically 
maintains the right to decide in the last resort, as to the 
extent of its powers, will scarcely be denied by anyone 
conversant with the political history of the country. That 
it also claims the right to resort to force to maintain what- 
ever power it claims, against all opposition, is equally cer- 
tain. Indeed it is apparent from what we daily hear that 
this has become the prevailing and fixed opinion of a great 
majority of the community. Now, I ask, what limitation 
can possibly be placed upon the powers of a government 
claiming and exercising such rights? And if none can be, 
how can the separate governments of the States maintain 
and protect the powers reserved to them by the Constitu- 
tion — or the people of the several States maintain those 
which are reserved to them, and among others, the sover- 
eign powers by which they ordained and established not 
only their separate State Constitutions and Governments, 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 247 

but also the Constitution and Government of the United 
States? ... It also follows, that the character of the 
Government has been changed in consequence from a fed- 
eral republic as it originally came from the hands of its 
framers, into a great national, consolidated democracy. 
It has indeed, at present, all the characteristics of the lat- 
ter, and not one of the former, although it still retains its 
outward form. 

The result of the whole of these causes combined is — 
that the North has acquired a decided ascenden-cy over 
every department of this Government, and through it a 
control over all the powers of the system. . , . 

As, then, the North has the absolute control over the 
Government, it is manifest, that on all questions between 
it and the South, where there is a diversity of interests, the 
interest of the latter will be sacrificed to the former, how- 
ever oppressive the effects may be ; as the South possesses 
no means by which it can resist, through the action of the 
Government. . . . There is a question of vital importance 
to the Southern section, in reference to which the views 
and feelings of the two sections are as opposite and hostile 
as they can possibly be. 

I refer to the relation between the two races in the South- 
ern section, which constitutes a vital portion of her social 
organization. Every portion of the North entertains views 
and feelings more or less hostile to it. Those most op- 
posed and hostile regard it as a sin, and consider them- 
selves under the most sacred obligation to use every effort 
to destroy it. . . . On the contrary the Southern section re- 
gards the relation as one that cannot be destroyed without 
subjecting the two races to the greatest calamity, and the 
section to poverty, desolation, and wretchedness ; and ac- 
cordingly they feel bound, by every consideration of in- 
terest and safety, to defend it. 

This hostile feeling on the part of the North towards the 
social organization of the South long lay dormant, but it 
only required some cause to act on those who felt most in- 



248 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

tensely that they were responsible for its continuance to 
call it into action. . . . 

Such is a brief history of the agitation as far as it has 
yet advanced. Now I ask, Senators, what is there to pre- 
vent its further progress, until it fulfills the ultimate end 
proposed, unless some decisive measure should be adopted 
to prevent it? Has anyone of the causes, which has added 
to its increase from its original small and contemptible be- 
ginning until it has attained its present magnitude, di- 
minished in force? Is the original cause of the movement — 
that slavery is a sin and ought to be suppressed — weaker 
now than at the commencement? Or is the abolition party 
less numerous or influential, or have they less influence 
with or control over the two great parties of the North in 
elections? Or has the South greater means of influencing 
or controlling the movements of this Government now than 
it had when the agitation commenced? To all these ques- 
tions but one answer can be given : No — no — no. The 
very reverse is true. Instead of being weaker, all the ele- 
ments in favor of agitation are stronger now than they 
were in 1835, when it first commenced, while all of the ele- 
ments of influence on the part of the South are weaker. 
Unless something decisive is done, I again ask, what is to 
stop this agitation, before the great and final object at which 
it aims — the abolition of slavery in the States — is con- 
summated? Is it, then, not certain, that if something is 
not done to arrest it, the South will be forced to choose be- 
tween abolition and secession? Indeed, as events are now 
moving, it will not require the South to secede in order 
to dissolve the Union. Agitation will of itself effect it of 
which its past history furnishes abundant proof — as I 
shall next proceed to show. 

It is a great mistake to suppose that disunion can be 
effected by a single blow. The cords which bound these 
States together in one common union are far too numerous 
and powerful for that. Disunion must be the work of 
time. It is only through a long process, and successively, 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 249 

that the cords can be snapped, until the whole fabric falls 
asunder. Already the agitation of the slavery question has 
snapped some of the most important, and has greatly weak- 
ened all the others, as I shall proceed to show. 

The cords that bind the States together are not only 
many, but various in character. Some are spiritual or 
ecclesiastical ; some political ; others social. Some apper- 
tain to the benefit conferred by the Union, and others to the 
feeling of duty and obligation. 

The strongest of those of a spiritual and ecclesiastical na- 
ture consisted in the unity of the great religious denomina- 
tions, all of which originally embraced the whole Union. 
All these denominations, with the exception, perhaps, of 
the Catholics, were organized very much upon the principle 
of our political institutions. Beginning with smaller meet- 
ings, corresponding with the political divisions of the coun- 
try, their organization terminated in one great central as- 
semblage, corresponding very much with the character of 
Congress. At these meetings the principal clergymen and 
lay-members of the respective denominations, from all parts 
of the Union, met to transact business relating to their 
common concerns. It was not confined to whatever ap- 
pertained to the doctrines and discipline of the respective 
denominations, but extended to plans for disseminating the 
Bible-establishing missions, distributing tracts — and of 
establishing presses for the publication of tracts, newspa- 
pers and periodicals, with a view of dififusing religious in- 
formation — and for the support of their respective doc- 
trines and creeds. All this combined contributed greatly 
to strengthen the bonds of the Union. The ties which held 
each denomination together formed a strong cord to hold 
the whole Union together; but, powerful as they were, 
they have not been able to resist the explosive effect of 
slavery agitation. 

The first of these cords which snapped, under its ex- 
plosive force, was that of the powerful ^Methodist Epis- 
copal Church. The numerous and strong ties which held 



25o READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

it together, are all broken, and its unity gone. They now 
form separate churches ; and, instead of that feeling of at- 
tachment and devotion to the interests of the whole church 
which was formerly felt, they are now arrayed into two 
hostile bodies, engaged in litigation about what was for- 
merly their common property. 

The next cord that snapped was that of the Baptists — 
one of the largest and most respectable of the denomina- 
tions. That of the Presbyterian is not entirely snapped, 
but some of its strands have given way. That of the Epis- 
copal Church is the only one of the four great Protestant 
denominations which remains unbroken and entire. 

The strongest cord, of a political character, consists of 
the many and powerful ties that have held together the 
two great parties which have, with some modifications, ex- 
isted from the beginning of the Government. They both 
extended to every portion of the Union, and strongly con- 
tributed to hold all its parts together. But this powerful 
cord has fared not better than the spiritual. It resisted 
for a long time the explosive tendency of the agitation, but 
has finally snapped under its force — if not entirely, in 
a great measure. Nor is there one of the remaining cords 
which has not been greatly weakened. To this extent the 
Union has already been destroyed by agitation, in the only 
way it can be, by sundering and weakening the cords which 
bind it together. 

If the agitation goes on, the same force, acting with in- 
creased intensity, as has been shown, will finally snap every 
cord, when nothing will be left to hold the States together 
except force. But, surely, that can, with no propriety of 
language, be called a Union, when the only means by which 
the weaker is held connected with the stronger portion is 
force. It may, indeed, keep them connected; but the con- 
nection will partake much more of the character of sub- 
jugation on the part of the weaker to the stronger, than 
the union of free, independent, and sovereign States, in 
one confederation, as they stood in the early stages of the 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 25 1 

Government, and which only is worthy of the sacred name 
of Union. 

Having now, Senators, explained what it is that endan- 
gers the Union, and traced it to its cause, and explained 
its nature and character, the question again recurs — How 
can the Union be saved? To this I answer, there is but 
one way by which it can be — and that is — by adopting such 
measures as will satisfy the States belonging to the South- 
ern section, that they can remain in the Union consistently 
with their honor and their safety. There is again, only 
one way by which this can be effected, and that is — by re- 
moving the causes by which this belief has been produced. 
Do this, and discontent will cease — harmony and kind 
feelings between the sections be restored — and every ap- 
prehension of danger to the Union be removed. The ques- 
tion, then, is — How can this be done? But before I under- 
take to answer this question, I propose to show by what the 
Union cannot be saved. 

It cannot, then, be saved by the eulogies on the Union, 
however splendid or numerous. The cry of " Union, 
Union — the glorious Union ! " can no more prevent dis- 
union, than the cry of " Health, health — glorious health ! " 
on the part of the physician, can save a patient lying dan- 
gerously ill. So long as the Union, instead of being re- 
garded as a protector, is regarded in the opposite character, 
by not much less than a majority of the States, it will be in 
vain to attempt to conciliate them by pronouncing eulogies 
upon. it. . . . 

Nor can the Union be saved by invoking the name of the 
illustrious Southerner whose mortal remains repose on the 
western bank of the Potomac. He was one of us — a 
slaveholder and a planter. We have studied his history and 
find nothing in Jt to justify submission to wrong. On the 
contrary, his great fame rests on the solid foundation, that, 
while he was careful to avoid doing wrong to others, he 
was prompt and decided in repelling wrong. I trust that, 
in this respect, we profited by his example. 



252 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Nor can we find anything in his history to deter us from 
seceding from the Union, should it fail to fulfill the objects 
for which it was instituted, by being permanently and hope- 
lessly converted into the means of oppressing instead of 
protecting us. On the contrary, we find much in his ex- 
ample to encourage us, should we be forced to the ex- 
tremity of deciding between submission and disunion. 

There existed then, as well as now, a union — that be- 
tween the parent country and her then colonies. It was 
a union that had much to endear it to the people of the 
colonies. Under its protecting and superintending care, 
the colonies were planted and grew up and prospered, 
through a long course of years, until they became populous 
and wealthy. Its benefits were not limited to them. Their 
extensive agricultural and other productions, gave birth to 
a flourishing commerce, which richly rewarded the parent 
country for the trouble and expense of establishing and 
protecting them. Washington was born and grew up to 
manhood under that union. He acquired his early dis- 
tinction in its service, and there is every reason to believe 
that he was devotedly attached to it. But his devotion 
was a rational one. He was attached to it, not as an end, 
but as a means to an end. When it failed to fulfill its end, 
and, instead of affording protection, was converted into the 
means of oppressing the colonies, he did not hesitate to 
draw his sword, and head the great movement by which 
that union was forever severed, and the independence of 
these States established. This was the great and crowning 
glory of his life, which has spread his fame over the whole 
globe, and will transmit it to the latest posterity. . . . 

Having now shown what cannot save the Union, I 
return to the question with which I commenced — How can 
the Union be saved? There is but one way by which it can 
with any certainty ; and that is by a full and final settle- 
ment, on the principle of justice, of all the questions at issue 
between the two sections. The South asks for justice, sim- 
ple justice, and less she ought not to take. She has no 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 253 

compromise to offer, but the Constitution ; and no conces- 
sion or surrender to make. She has already surrendered 
so much that she has Httle left to surrender. Such a set- 
tlement would go to the root of the evil, and remove all cause 
of discontent, by satisfying the South, she could remain hon- 
orably and safely In the Union, and thereby restore the 
harmony and fraternal feelings between the sections, which 
existed anterior to the Missouri agitation. Nothing else 
can, with any certainty, finally and forever settle the ques- 
tions at Issue, terminate agitation, and save the Union. 

But can this be done? Yes, easily; not by the weaker 
party, for it can of Itself do nothing — not even protect 
itself — but by the stronger. The North has only to will it 
to accomplish It — to do justice by conceding to the South 
an equal right in the acquired territory, and to do her duty, 
by causing the stipulations relative to fugitive slaves to be 
faithfully fulfilled — to cease the agitation of the slave 
question, and to provide for the Insertion of a provision in 
the Constitution, by an amendment, which will restore to 
the South, in substance, the power she possessed of pro- 
tecting herself before the equilibrium of the sections was 
destroyed by the action of this Government. There will 
be no difficulty in devising such a provision — one that will 
protect the South, and which, at the same time, will improve 
and strengthen the Government, Instead of Impairing and 
weakening it. 

Works of Calhoun, Vol. IV, pp. 542-573. D. Appleton 
and Co., New York, 1854. 

Questions 

What two reasons did Calhoun assign for the Southern discontent 
that endangered the Union. Illustrate the way in which the North 
had come to overbalance the South in the Union. To what causes 
did Calhoun consider this due? Trace the steps by which Calhoun 
claimed that the South had been excluded from her fair share of 
the Territories. What change did Calhoun consider had occurred in 
the nature of the government of the United States? What danger 



254 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

did this and the Northern predominance in the government threaten 
to the South? What specific aggression did the spread of aboHtion 
sentiment lead the South to apprehend? In what sense would ag- 
itation of itself dissolve the Union? How had the discords of 
the great churches and political parties foreshadowed the dissolu- 
tion of the Union? What justification for Southern resistance could 
Calhoun draw from the career of Washington? Wliat did he con- 
sider would save the Union? 



XL 
THE NORTHWEST FORMS A NEW PARTY 

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was the signal for 
the coalescence into a new party of elements opposed to the ex- 
tension of slavery. The movement for the new party and the 
elements that found their way into it are here told. 

■The repeal of the Missouri Compromise came like a 
whirlwind upon the people of the North At a time when 
the Federal Government was giving itself up to the de- 
mands of slavery, the sentiment of liberty was growing. 
The Democratic party had surrendered to the South, btit 
it was called to reckon with true democracy at the North. 
Many who had not been aroused hitherto now shouted for 
the sacredness of the bargain of 1820. The awaited shock 
had come. Indignant Democrats who had voted for Pierce 
in 1852, thinking that the last word had been said for 
slavery, joined with Whigs who were half gleeful that 
their boastful old-time enemies had not found such easy 
sailing, and half angry that the compromise of their own 
chieftain had been abandoned. Crystallization into a new 
party came at once. Emigrant aid societies and private 
benevolence armed the sturdy New Englander and hurried 
him off to the new Territory to hold the doubtful ground 
for liberty with the rifle. Earnest men in all the North, 
startled by seeing the last barrier broken, demanded an 
end of irresolution and trifling. The Whigs and Democrats 
who were provoked to opposition wasted too much time and 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 255 

thought on " breach of faith," and lamented with overmuch 
sorrow the destruction of a geographical line, which had 
been for many years the bane of our politics. Such per- 
sons, however, were soon found hand in glove with the 
Free-Soilers, who saw in the obnoxious measure only an 
instance of the perfidy of slavery and the folly of compro- 
mises and bargains with sin. 

The Republican party was born in the Northwest. It 
breathed its early life in that virile region which had never 
felt the enervating influence of colonialism, in a section 
which was now filled with the power of a highly developed 
and organized society, and yet had not lost the zeal, vi- 
tality, and energy of a primitive and newly settled coun- 
try. Men of the young West easily free themselves from 
associations of party and leave the shallow ruts of cus- 
tom. They do not know the burdening weight of tradi- 
tion and inheritance, and they readily think for themselves 
and act as they think. The pioneer who has wrought his 
own work and fought his own fight has no respect for pre- 
scription, and bases superiority on skill and endurance. 
Yet side by side with this marked individualism and inde- 
pendence, there is a generous altruism and a comprehension 
of society. Lessons are learned from Nature. Her 
breadth and liberality do not teach the settler selfishness. 
He may lose opportunities for refinement and culture, but 
his views are not limited to a narrow horizon. These char- 
acteristics display themselves variously; there is a deep, 
broad, and fervent love of country, an admiration of her 
greatness and an appreciation of her manifest destiny. 
Geography teaches patriotism. " Vast prairies covered by 
the unbroken dome of the sky, and navigable rivers all con- 
verging to a common trunk, perpetually suggest to him 
Unionism." He is proud of the mightiness of the Repub- 
lic. W^ithout acute susceptibility to criticism, he delights 
in praise of the grandeur and glory of his country. " The 
true American is found in the Great Valley." Naturally, 
therefore, in 1854, old party trammels were soonest cast 



256 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

aside by the people of the Northwest. They most readily 
bent to the task of forming a party upon the cornerstone of 
unionism and freedom, a party opposed to state sovereignty 
and to a sectional constitutional interpretation which would 
shield wrong. They gave their strength to the party which 
advocated nationahsm. From 1854 until the close of the 
Civil War, the upper part of the Great Valley was the 
center of loyalty and Republicanism. Here was the early 
home of the new union-anti-slavery party, and it has never 
wandered far from its birthplace ; every one of its success- 
ful candidates for the presidency has come from the old 
Northwest, and all its nominees, save one, have been West- 
ern men. 

In addition to this natural tendency, there were two 
other reasons for the appearance of the Republican party 
in the West before the East was ready to break old party 
lines. The South long counted on the influence of com- 
mercial conservatism in the North, and it cannot be denied 
that this operated much more strongly in the mercantile 
centers of the East than in the farming West, which had 
few commercial relations with the cotton States. The 
second reason was an equally potent one. The North- 
west was honeycombed by the underground railroad. The 
fugitives from service found their way to Canada by the 
shortest road, and the slave chase awakened Northwestern 
resentment. 

Upon the passage of the Nebraska bill there came a de- 
mand for a new party. Men who had never voted a Free- 
Soil ticket now avowed their willingness to support any 
candidate on a sound anti-slavery platform. The East, 
with its usual conservatism, hesitated to break old ties and 
to launch a new party without prestige and traditions. Pos- 
sibly the very first active suggestion of the new party came 
from the little town of Ripon, Wisconsin. There, in 
February, 1854, while the obnoxious act was under dis- 
cussion in Congress, a local meeting was held, and the 
principles for the coming emergency were considered. On 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 257 

March 20, in a town meeting, the committees of the Whig 
and Free-Soil parties were dissolved and a new committee 
was chosen, composed of three Whigs, one Free-Soiler, 
and one Democrat. Thus in miniature were the dissolu- 
tion of the old and the formation of the new faithfully 
typified. The '' solitary tallow candle " and the " little 
white schoolhouse " have become immortal in our history. 
In May, immediately after the passage of the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill, some thirty congressmen at Washington met 
and considered the formation of the " Republican " party. 
By that time the name, was in the air. It was a ques- 
tion as to where and by whom it should be adopted. 
Horace Greeley, who had fought so valiantly against slav- 
ery, was getting disheartened. " I faintly hope the time 
has come predicted by Dan Webster when he said: 'I 
think there will be a North.' " The veterans of the East 
listened to calls from the excited Northwest. Editors 
'' can direct and animate a healthy public indignation, but 
not create a soul beneath the ribs of Death." Greeley 
wrote to Jacob M. Howard of Michigan, that Wisconsin 
on July 13 would adopt the name Republican, and he ad- 
vised Michigan to anticipate such action in the convention 
summoned for the 6th. But no such advice was needed ; 
the work of arousing interest in such a plan was already 
begun, and to Alichigan belongs the honor of really con- 
ceiving and christening the Republican party. The Detroit 
Tribune, June 2, formulated its proposition frankly: 
" Our proposition is that a convention be called, irrespec- 
tive of party organization, for the purpose of agreeing upon 
some plan of action that shall combine the whole anti- 
slavery sentiment of the State upon one ticket." The 
'' call " published in that paper, said to be the work of 
Isaac P. Christiancy, began with the words, '' A great 
wrong has been perpetrated." It invited all, '' without 
reference to former political associations, who think the 
time has arrived for Union at the North to protect liberty 
from being overthrown and downtrodden, to assemble in 
18 



258 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

mass convention, Thursday, the sixth of July next, at one 
o'clock, at Jackson, there to take such measures as shall be 
thought best to concentrate the popular sentiment of this 
State against the encroachments of the slave power." 

On that date, July 6, 1854, the Whigs and Free-Soilers, 
or the " Free Democracy " of Michigan, met and formed 
a single party. The name Republican was adopted. A 
powerful platform, attributed to Jacob M. Howard, was 
accepted as the basis of the new party. It resolved '* That 
in view of the necessity of battling for the first principles 
of republican government and against the schemes of 
aristocracy, the most revolting and oppressive with which 
the world was ever cursed or man debased, we will cooper- 
ate and be known as Republicans until the contest be ter- 
minated." The strength of the new party was at once 
great. Wisconsin took the same position the next week. 
In the East the \Miigs, as a rule, maintained their organi- 
zation. The Northwest was on its feet and equipped for 
battle. 

The result of the elections showed the strength of pro- 
test against the violation of the compromise. The North- 
west vigorously supported the new party. Michigan 
elected the whole state ticket, and three out of four con- 
gressmen. Cass seemed ill requited for his services to the 
old party, but a comparison of the figures will prove that, 
though his influence had waned, it was still of weight. 
Two of the three congressmen elected in Wisconsin were 
RepubHcans. In Illinois, the Nebraska and Douglas Demo- 
crats were 18,000 behind in the vote of the State, although 
two years before Pierce had had a clear majority of more 
than 5,000 over Scott and Hale, the last having received 
less than 10,000 votes. Even in Indiana the Republicans 
had a majority of some 14,000. Ohio, of course, came 
prominently forward. The old Western Reserve district 
cast two Republican votes for every one cast for Nebraska 
and " squatter sovereignty." Maine was the only one of 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 259 

the Eastern States that adopted for the campaign the new 
name or elected a RepubUcan ticket. 

The different elements in Northwestern life once more 
gave evidence of the power of inherited ideas and preju- 
dices. The Southern element, as if in obedience to the 
famous words of King James's charter, 1609, advanced 
into the country on a line running " west and northwest," 
— its presence is evident in the southern counties of In- 
diana, — and running northward penetrated as far north as 
the center of Illinois. In the northern tier of counties, 
which were settled from New York and New England, the 
Republican vote was 8,372, and the Nebraska vote 2,776; 
in the ninth district, in the southern point, 2,911 votes were 
cast for the Republican candidate, and 8,498 for the Demo- 
cratic. Possibly the most characteristic and startling ex- 
ception, which proved the rule, was the vote of Madison 
County, the former home of Edward Coles, who moved 
from Virginia to Illinois to free his slaves, and left the 
impress of his character on the surrounding country. 
Madison County cast 2,220 Republican ballots, and but 393 
" for Nebraska." 

The great danger to the Republican party seemed to be 
the American party, — a sub rosa organization, which at- 
tempted to substitute another question, and to excite the 
people by holding up the specter of Rome and the tyranny 
of Catholicism. The party was not built on the broad 
foundation of the necessity of preserving a pure ballot and 
free government by maintaining sound American doctrine 
and insisting upon good American intelligence as a basis 
for suffrage. Its platform was not so much its oft-re- 
peated " America for Americans " as it was America for 
Protestants, and anything to avoid a decision on the real 
problems of the day. Its secret organization was at once 
an insult to the people and the assurance of its failure. 
No " order " having a hierarchy and degrees, and encum- 
bering a political topic with paraphernalia and mystic sym- 
bolism, can rise to dignity in a free country and dominate 



26o READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

a frank and thoughtful people, the very essence of whose 
institutions is common participation, common undertak- 
ing, and common judgment. So great, however, was the 
desire of men in those harrowing days to avoid responsi- 
bility that this organization assumed alarming proportions 
and threatened the success of the party which faced pres- 
ent realities. It served a purpose quite different from the 
one hoped for or contemplated. Whigs and Democrats 
too obstinate or proud to transfer their allegiance at once 
to the Republicans took this secret passage, and finally 
emerged thence into good standing with the anti-slavery 
party, without the shame of having changed their coats in 
broad daylight. 

This organization appeared in 1852. At first it simply 
interrogated candidates, but in 1854 it masqueraded as a 
political party, and for a few^ years played its role not 
without some success. In some of the Eastern States, 
especially, it held its head high ; and in the Border States it 
lingered long, until Western Republicanism with its sense 
of present duty, sincerity, and actuality shamed it out of 
sight. The real name adopted by these whispering politi- 
cians was as silly as their purpose. " The Sons of 'y6, or 
the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner," was the title 
used in its inner mysterious circles. The sobriquet, 
" Know-Nothing," arose from the answers of its members, 
who uniformly replied, " I don't know," to all inquiries as 
to the name and purpose of the organization ; only those 
who had taken the higher degrees knew its more serious 
intents or how ambitiously it had been christened. No 
party can hope to succeed in the United States which has 
but one aim, and that, too, not a political one. The suc- 
cess of the Republican party has often been cited to dis- 
prove such a statement and to furnish inspiration for new 
movements. The historic analogy is deceptive. The Re- 
publican party, although inspired with a truly moral pur- 
pose, was a political party, with a well-known and well- 
defined policy in affairs of state, and not simply a com- 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 261 

bination of enthusiasts burning with zeal for the reahza- 
tion of a single idea. The Know-Nothing party had no 
political virility. *' It would seem," sneered Greeley, *' as 
devoid of the elements of persistence as an anti-cholera or 
an anti-potato-rot party would be. . . ." 

The campaign of 1856 followed close upon these exciting 
events. The Democratic National Convention met in Cin- 
cinnati in June. Buchanan had the lead from the start, 
and was nominated. In answer to a letter signed by 
Andrew F. Webster and others in November of 1855, Cass 
said that he did not desire to have his name used in the 
convention ; but some of the delegates insisted on voting 
for him. He received only five votes on the first ballot, 
and at no time showed great strength, though retaining a 
few faithful adherents to the end. John C. Breckinridge 
of Kentucky was nominated as vice-president. The con- 
vention adopted a platform on the old lines, repudiating 
" all sectional parties . . . whose avowed purpose, if con- 
summated, must end in civil war and disunion." " Non- 
interference " was once more proclaimed the sovereign 
remedy. The American party put Fillmore in nomination, 
and he attracted the few Whigs who still answered to the 
name. The Republicans, holding their first national con- 
vention at Philadelphia, selected as their candidates John 
C. Fremont of California and William L. Dayton of New 
Jersey. The platform was definite and decided. It re- 
counted the crimes against Kansas, and advocated its im- 
mediate admission as a State under a free constitution ; it 
denied " the authority of Congress, of a territorial legisla- 
ture, of any individual or association of individuals, to give 
legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the United 
States," and proclaimed its belief that Congress had ''sov- 
ereign power over the Territories of the United States." 
The issue between the two great parties was sharply drawn. 
One announced that Congress had authority over the Ter- 
ritories, and was in duty bound to exercise it for the pre- 
vention of slavery. The other advocated the uniform 



262 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

application of the " democratic principle " of non-inter- 
ference in " the organization of the Territories and the 
admission of new States." 

The campaign was one of the most serious, earnest, and 
enthusiastic in our history. Fremont, because of his ro- 
mantic career and personal charms, was easily converted 
into an ideal champion, strongly appealing to the imagina- 
tion and the affection of the vigorous young party of free- 
dom. Everywhere in the North went up the rallying cry, 
" Free soil, free speech, free men, and Fremont." The 
times were not yet ripe for complete success. The Demo- 
cratic party gained the day, carrying every Southern State 
save Maryland, which gave itself up to Know-Nothingism. 
But such a victory was the victory of Pyrrhus. The Re- 
publicans cast more votes in the Free States than did the 
Democrats. In the East only Pennsylvania and New Jer- 
sey, in the West only Illinois, Indiana and California, cast 
their electoral votes for the Democratic candidate. In the 
first of these alone, Buchanan's own State, did the Demo- 
crats outnumber the Republicans and Know-Nothings com- 
bined. The " sectional party " exhibited a wonderful 
vigor. The threat was often heard in the campaign that 
its success meant the separation of the Union. From the 
time of this election that was a standing menace. 

A. C. McLaughlin: Lezvis Cass in the American States- 
men Series, Vol. XXIV, pp. 300-323. Houghton Mifflin 
Co., 1899. 

Questions 

How did the repeal of the Missouri Compromise reopen the 
question of the extension of slavery? Explain why it drove many 
of the Democrats and Whigs, who had considered the Compromise 
of 1850 as final, into a new party. Describe the meeting at Ripon, 
Wisconsin, March 20, to illustrate this point. The organization of 
the Republican party in Michigan. Explain the statement that the 
new party was the party of nationalism and freedom. Why did 
it appeal to the men of the Northwest especially? Why did the 
East hang back in the formation of the new party? How was the 
name Republican adopted? Show how the vote in the election of 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 263 

1854 illt-istrated the mixture of Northern and Southern elements in 
the population of Indiana and Illinois. What were the principles 
of the Know Nothing party? How did its organization differ from 
that of other political parties? Explain why the secret element in 
its organization insured its ultimate failure? How did its existence 
seem for a time to endanger the development of the Republican 
party? Explain how it became a halfway house for those trans- 
ferring from the Whig and Democratic parties to the Republicans. 
What was the platform of the Republican party in 1856? Who 
were its candidates ? Since this book was written, an eastern man, 
Roosevelt, was nominated and elected by the Republicans (1904). 



XLI 

"A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF 
CANNOT STAND" 

This speech was delivered by Abraham Lincoln at Spring- 
field, Illinois, June 16, 1858, at the close of the Republican 
State Convention which had endorsed Lincoln as the party can- 
didate for United States Senator. The speech strikes the key- 
note of Lincoln's senatorial campaign. 

The charge that the Kansas-Nebraska Act was part of a de- 
liberate conspiracy to turn the territories over to slavery was 
advanced generally by the Republicans; for instance, Seward 
claimed that the Supreme Court had been packed by the pro- 
slavery party to secure proslavery decisions similar to the Dred 
Scott decision. Such a conspiracy is improbable. It is, how- 
ever, conceded by most historians that Chief Justice Taney in his 
opinion decided in favor of slavery points of law which were 
not directly brought up by the case, and which, accordingly, 
he should not have touched on. 

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: If 
we could first know where we are and whither we are 
tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do 
it. We are now far into the fifth year since a poHcy was 
initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of 
putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the opera- 
tion of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, 



264 READINGS IN AAIERICAN HISTORY 

but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not 
cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. 
" A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe 
this government cannot endure permanently half slave and 
half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved ; T 
do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will 
cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the 
other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the 
further spread of it, and place it where the public mind 
shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate 
extinction ; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall 
become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new. 
North as well as South. 

Have we no tendency to the latter condition? 

Let anyone who doubts carefully contemplate that now 
almost complete legal combination — piece of machinery, 
so to speak — compounded of the Nebraska doctrine and 
the Dred Scott decision. Let him consider not only what 
work the machinery is adapted to do, and how well adapted ; 
but also let him study the history of its construction, and 
trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace the evi- 
dences of design and concert of action among its chief 
architects, from the beginning. 

The new year of 1854 found slavery excluded from more 
than half the States by State constitutions, and from most 
of the national territory by congressional prohibition. 
Four days later commenced the struggle which ended in 
repealing that congressional prohibition. This opened all 
the national territory to slavery, and was the first point 
gained. 

But, so far. Congress only had acted ; and an indorse- 
ment by the people, real or apparent, was indispensable to 
save the point already gained and give chance for more. 

This necessity had not been overlooked, but had been 
provided for, as well as might be, in the notable argument 
of " squatter sovereignty," otherwise called " sacred right 
of self-government," which latter phrase, though express- 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 2O5 

ive of the only rightful basis of any government, was so 
perverted in this attempted use of it as to amount to just 
this : That if any one man choose to enslave another, no 
third man shall be allowed to object. That argument was 
incorporated into the Nebraska bill itself, in the language 
which follows: " It being the true intent and meaning of 
this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, 
nor to exclude it therefrom ; but to leave the people thereof 
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institu- 
tions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of 
the United States." Then opened the roar of loose dec- 
lamation in favor of " squatter sovereignty " and '' sacred 
right of self-government." " But," said opposition mem- 
bers, '' let us amend the bill so as to expressly declare that 
the people of the Territory may exclude slavery." " Not 
we," said the friends of the measure; and down they voted 
the amendment. 

While the Nebraska bill was passing through Congress, 
a law case involving the question of a negro's freedom, by 
reason of his owner having voluntarily taken him first into 
a free State and then into a Territory covered by the con- 
gressional prohibition, and held him as a slave for a long 
time in each, was passing through the United States Cir- 
cuit Court for the District of Missouri ; and both Nebraska 
bill and lawsuit were brought to a decision in the same 
month of May, 1854. The negro's name was Dred Scott, 
which name now designates the decision finally made in the 
case. Before the then next presidential election, the law 
case came to and was argued in the Supreme Court of the 
United States; but the decision of it was deferred until 
after the election. Still, before the election. Senator 
Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate, requested the leading 
advocate of the Nebraska bill to state his opinion whether 
the people of a Territory can constitutionally exclude slav- 
ery from their limits ; and the latter answered : " That is 
a question for the Supreme Court." 

The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the 



266 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

indorsement, such as it was, secured. That was the second 
point gained. The indorsement, however, fell short of a 
clear popular majority by nearly four hundred thousand 
votes, and so, perhaps, was not overwhelmingly reUable and 
satisfactory. The outgoing President, in his last annual 
message, as impressively as possible echoed back upon the 
people the weight and authority of the indorsement. The 
Supreme Court met again ; did not announce their decision, 
but ordered a reargument. The presidential inauguration 
came, and still no decision of the court ; but the incoming 
President in his inaugural address fervently exhorted the 
people to abide by the forthcoming decision, whatever it 
might be. Then, in a few days, came the decision. 

The reputed author of the Nebraska bill finds an early 
occasion to make a speech at this capital indorsing the 
Dred Scott decision, and vehemently denouncing all oppo- 
sition to it. The new President, too, seizes the early occa- 
sion of the Silliman letter to indorse and strongly construe 
that decision, and to express his astonishment that any 
different view had ever been entertained ! 

At length a squabble springs up between the President 
and the author of the Nebraska bill on the mere question 
of fact, whether the Lecompton constitution was or was 
not, in any just sense, made by the people of Kansas; and 
in that quarrel the latter declares that all he wants is a fair 
vote for the people, and that he cares not whether slavery 
be voted down or voted up. I do not understand his 
declaration that he cares not whether slavery be voted down 
or voted up to be intended by him other than as an apt 
definition of the policy he would impress upon the public 
mind — the principle for which he declares he has suffered 
so much, and is ready to suffer to the end. And well may 
he cling to that principle. If he has any parental feeling, 
well may he cling to it. That principle is the only shred 
left of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under the Dred 
Scott decision " squatter sovereignty " squatted out of ex- 
istence, tumbled down like temporary scaffolding, — like 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 267 

the mold at the foundry, served through one blast and fell 
back into loose sand, — helped to carry an election, and 
then was kicked to the winds. His late joint struggle with 
the Republicans against the Lecompton constitution in- 
volves nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That 
struggle was made on a point — the right of a people to 
make their own constitution — upon which he and the 
Republicans have never differed. 

The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in con- 
nection with Senator Douglas's " care not " policy, consti- 
tute the piece of machinery in its present state of ad- 
vancement. This was the third point gained. The 
working points of that machinery are: 

(i) That no negro slave, imported as such from Africa, 
and no descendant of such slave, can ever be a citizen of 
any State, in the sense of that term as used in the Consti- 
tution of the United States. This point is made in order 
to deprive the negro in every possible event of the benefit 
of that provision of the United States Constitution which 
declares that '' the citizens of each State shall be entitled 
to all the privileges and immunities of citizens in the sev- 
eral States." 

(2) That, " subject to the Constitution of the United 
States," neither Congress nor a territorial legislature can 
exclude slavery from any United States Territory. This 
point is made in order that individual men may fill up the 
Territories with slaves, without danger of losing them as 
property, and thus enhance the chances of permanency to 
the institution through all the future. 

(3) That whether the holding a negro in actual slavery 
in a free State makes him free as against the holder, the 
United States courts will not decide, but will leave to be 
decided by the courts of any slave State the negro may be 
forced into by the master. This point is made not to be 
pressed immediately, but, if acquiesced in for a while, and 
apparently indorsed by the people at an election, then to 
sustain the logical conclusion that what Dred Scott's mas- 



268 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

ter might lawfully do with Dred Scott in the free State 
of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with any 
other one or one thousand slaves in Illinois or in any other 
free State. 

Political Debates Betzveen Hon. Abraham Lincoln and 
Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, pp. i ff. Columbus, Ohio, i860. 

Questions 

What did Lincoln believe would be the result of the struggle be- 
tween those who sought to extend slavery in the United States and 
those who sought to limit it? What was the status in the nation of 
freedom and slavery January i, 1854? How was it changed by the 
Kansas-Nebraska Act and its doctrine of popular sovereignty? 
How, according to Lincoln, did the advocates of that measure re- 
fuse to allow a distinct statement of the rights of the people of a 
Territory to exclude slavery? Who did they think should decide 
whether the people of a Territory had that right? How did the 
Supreme Court decide that point? (See Dred Scott Case.) What 
effect did the decision have on popular sovereignty according to 
Lincoln? State exactly the first point of the Dred Scott decision as 
it is given in the text. Would the statement bar from State citizen- 
ship an African who had come to the United States as a free man, 
or his descendants? What did Lincoln say was the purpose of the 
decision on this point? What is the second point of the Dred Scott 
decision? How w^ould this affect the constitutionalty of the Missouri 
Compromise? State the third point of the decision, as Lincoln here 
asserted it to be. 



XLII 
SLAVERY AS A MORAL ISSUE 

This speech was delivered by Lincoln at the end of the de- 
bate with Douglas, at Alton, Illinois, October 15, 1858. It is 
easily the finest thing of permanent interest in the debates; a 
masterly presentation of the position of the Republican party 
on the slavery issue and a fine statement of the simple morals 
of the whole question. Lincoln protests against the use of the 
slavery issue for mere political purposes and insists that slavery 
must be regarded as in itself a wrong which must sometime be 
done away with. At the same time he protests against disre- 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 269 

gard of the rights that slaveholders could lawfully claim under 
the Constitution. 

Now, irrespective of the moral aspect of this question as 
to whether there is a right or wrong in enslaving a negro, 
I am still in favor of our new Territories being in such a 
condition that white men may find a home — may find some 
spot where they can better their condition — where they 
can settle upon new soil, and better their condition in life. 
. . . I am in favor of this not merely (I must say it here 
as I have elsewhere) for our own people who are born 
amongst us, but as an outlet for free white people every- 
z^'here, the world over — in which Hans, and Baptiste, and 
Patrick, and all other men from all the world, may find 
new homes and better their condition in life. . . . 

I have stated upon former occasions, and I may as well 
state again, what I understand to be the real issue of this 
controversy between Judge Douglas and myself. On the 
point of my wanting to make war between the Free and 
the Slave States, there has been no issue between us. So, 
too, when he assumes that I am in favor of introducing a 
perfect social and political equality between the white and 
black races. These are false issues, upon which Judge 
Douglas has tried to force the controversy. There is no 
foundation in truth for the charge that I maintain either 
of these propositions. The real issue in this controversy 
— the one pressing upon every mind — is the sentiment on 
the part of one class that looks upon the institution of slav- 
ery as a wrong, and of another class that does not look upon 
it as a wrong. The sentiment that contemplates the in- 
stitution of slavery in this country as a wrong is the senti- 
ment of the Republican party. It is the sentiment around 
which all their actions, all their arguments, circle ; from 
which all their propositions radiate. They look upon it as 
being a moral, social, and political wrong; and while they 
contemplate it as such, they nevertheless have due regard 
for its actual existence among us, and the difficulties of 



270 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

getting rid of it in any satisfactory way, and to all the 
constitutional obligations thrown about it. Yet having a 
due regard for these, they desire a policy in regard to it 
that looks to its not creating any more danger. They in- 
sist that it should, as far as may be, be treated as a wrong ; 
and one of the methods of treating it as a wrong is to make 
provision that it shall grozv no larger. . . . They also de- 
sire a policy that looks to a peaceful end of slavery at some 
time, as being a wrong. These are the views they enter- 
tain in regard to it, as I understand them ; and all their sen- 
timents, all their arguments and propositions, are brought 
within this range. I have said, and I repeat it here, that if 
there be a man amongst us who does not think that the in- 
stitution of slavery is wrong in any one of the aspects of 
which I have spoken, he is misplaced, and ought not to be 
with us. And if there be a man amongst us who is so im- 
patient of it as a wrong as to disregard its actual presence 
among us and the difficulty of getting rid of it suddenly 
in a satisfactory way, and to disregard the constitutional 
obligations thrown about it, that man is misplaced if he is 
on our platform. We disclaim sympathy with him in prac- 
tical action. He is not placed properly with us. 

On this subject of treating it as a wrong, and limiting 
its spread, let me say a word. Has anything ever threat- 
ened the existence of this Union save and except this very 
institution of slavery? What is it that we hold most dear 
amongst us? Our own liberty and prosperity. What has 
ever threatened our liberty and prosperity save and except 
this institution of slavery? If this is true, how do you 
propose to improve the condition of things by enlarging 
slavery — by spreading it out and making it bigger? You 
can have a wen or cancer upon your person, and not be 
able to cut it out lest you bleed to death ; but surely it is 
no way to cure it, to engraft it and spread it over your 
whole body. That is no proper way of treating what you 
regard as a wrong. You see this peaceful way of dealing 
with it as a wrong — restricting the spread of it, and not 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 271 

allowing it to go into new countries where it has not al- 
ready existed. That is the peaceful way, the old-fashioned 
way, the way in which the fathers themselves set us the 
example. 

On the other hand, I have said there is a sentiment 
which treats it as not being wrong. That is the Demo- 
cratic sentiment of this day. I do not mean to say that 
every man who stands within that range positively asserts 
that it is right. That class will include all who positively 
assert that it is right, and all who, like Judge Douglas, 
treat it as indifferent, and do not say it is either right or 
wrong. These tw^o classes of men fall wuthin the general 
class of those who do not look upon it as a wrong. And 
if there be among you anybody who supposes that he, as 
a Democrat, can consider himself " as much opposed to 
slavery as anybody," I would like to reason with him. 
You never treat it as a wrong. What other thing that 
you consider as a wrong, do you deal with as you deal 
with that? Perhaps, you say it is a wrong, hut your leader 
never does, and you quarrel with anybody who says it is 
wrong. Although you pretend to say so yourself, you can 
find no fit place to deal with it as a wrong. You must not 
say anything about it in the Free States, because it is not 
here. You must not say anything about it in the Slave 
States, because it is there. You must not say anything 
about it in the pulpit, because that is religion, and has 
nothing to do with it. You must not say anything about 
it in politics, because that will disturb the security of " my 
place." . . . There is no place to talk about it as being a 
wrong, although you say yourself it is wrong. . . . 

The Democratic policy in regard to that institution will 
not tolerate the merest breath, the slightest hint, of the 
least degree of wrong about it. 

Try it by some of Judge Douglas's arguments. He says 
he " don't care whether it is voted up or voted down " 
in the Territories. I do not care myself, in dealing with 



272 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

that expression, whether it is intended to be expressive of 
his individual sentiments on the subject, or only of the 
national policy he desires to have established. It is alike 
valuable for my purpose. Any man can say that, who does 
not see anything wrong in slavery; but no man can logi- 
cally say it who does see a wrong in it, because no rnan can 
logically say he don't care whether a wrong is voted up 
or voted down. He may say he don't care whether an 
indifferent thing is voted up or down, but he must logically 
have a choice between a right thing and a wrong thing. 
He contends that whatever community wants slaves has a 
right to have them. So they have, if it is not a wrong. 
But if it is a wrong, he cannot say people have a right to 
do wrong. He says that upon the score of equality, slaves 
should be allowed to go into a new Territory, like other 
property. This is strictly logical if there is no difference 
between it and other property. If it and other property 
are equal, his argument is entirely logical. But if you 
insist that one is wrong and the other right, there is no 
use to institute a comparison between right and wrong. 
You may turn over everything in the Democratic policy 
from beginning to end, whether in the shape it takes on 
the statute book, in the shape it takes in the Dred Scott 
decision, in the shape it takes in conversation, or the shape 
it takes in short maxim-like arguments — it everywhere 
carefully excludes the idea that there is anything wrong 
in it. 

That is the real issue. That is the issue that will con- 
tinue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge 
Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal 
struggle between these two principles — right and wrong 
— throughout the world. They are the two principles that 
have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and 
will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common 
right of humanity, and the other the " divine right of 
kings." It is the same principle in whatever shape it 
develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, " You work 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 273 

and toil and earn bread, and I'll eat it." No matter in 
what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king 
who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and 
live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men 
as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same 
tyrannical principle. 

I was glad to express my gratitude at Quincy, and I 
re-express it here to Judge Douglas — that he looks to no 
end of the institution of slavery. That will help- the people 
to see where the struggle really is. It will hereafter place 
with us all men who really do wish the wrong may have an 
end. And whenever we can get rid of the fog which ob- 
scures the real question, when we can get Judge Douglas 
and his friends to avow a policy looking to its perpetuation, 
we can get out from among them that class of men and 
bring them to the side of those who treat it as a wrong. 
Then there will soon be an end of it, and that end will be 
its " ultimate extinction." Whenever the issue can be dis- 
tinctly made, and all extraneous matter thrown out, so that 
men can fairly see the real difference between the parties, 
this controversy will soon be settled, and it will be done 
peacefully too. There will be no war, no violence. It 
will be placed again where the wisest and best men of the 
world placed it. Brooks of South Carolina once declared 
that when this Constitution was framed, its framers did 
not look to the institution existing until this day. When 
he said this, I think he stated a fact that is fully borne out 
by the history of the times. But he also said that they 
were better and wiser men than the men of these days ; 
yet the men of these days had experience which they had 
not, and by the invention of the cotton-gin it became a 
necessity in this country that slavery should be perpetual. 
I now say that, willingly or unwillingly, purposely or 
without purpose. Judge Douglas has been the most 
prominent instrument in changing the position of the insti- 
tution of slavery — which the fathers of the government 
expected to come to an end ere this, — and putting it upon 
19 



274 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Brooks cottin-gin basis; — placing it where he openly con- 
fesses he has no desire there shall ever be an end to it. 

The Lincoln Douglas Debates of 1858, pp. 481-486, Vol. 
Ill, of the Collections of the Illinois State Historical 
Library, Edwin E. Sparks, Editor. Springfield, Illinois, 
1908. 

Questions 

What did Lincoln say was the real point at issue between him 
and Douglas in regard to slavery?. Judging from Douglas's state- 
ment that he did " not care whether slavery was voted up or 
down " did he think that the slavery issue was one of right and 
wrong or one of political expediency? Why did Lincoln think that 
it was the policy of the Democratic party not to regard slavery as 
right or wrong? Did he think there was any place in the Demo- 
cratic party for men who thought slavery wrong? What did Lin- 
coln say the policy of the Republican party was with regard to : 
(a) the extension of slavery? (b) the immediate abolition of slavery 
without regard to constitutional limitations? Where did he think 
this policy had originated in American history? 



XLIII 

. ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

This sketch of Lincoln was written by a foreigner, one who had 
studied American history profoundly and realized the greatness 
as well as the rugged simplicity in the man of whom he wrote. 
It shows how the qualities of Lincoln, great human qualities, ap- 
pealed to one writing in another land and seeking to find the 
essential things in our history. 

A 

LINCOLN'S CHARACTER 

He was born in a slave state, and grew up in a free 
state in the poverty and privation of pioneer life. What 
he was indebted to the school master for would not have 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 275 

fitted him to fill the place of a teacher of an elementary 
class. But while his muscles were gaining extraordinary- 
power behind the plow and in the steady use of the ax 
and spade, he laid, in his leisure hours, by unwearying 
industry and earnest, intellectuM and moral labor, the 
broad and deep foundation of his future historical great- 
ness. Yet he would himself certainly have made merriest 
over it, if he had heard it prophesied, during these years, 
that he was to be called upon to play a part of any im- 
portance in the destinies of his country, to say nothing of 
a part of such importance that not only his grateful coun- 
trymen, but the judgment of history, would assign him a 
place immediately after, if not equal to, Washington's. It 
even seems as if, at this time, he had not the smallest spark 
of ambition, in the ordinary sense of the word. Neither 
can it be said that it in any way led him to the situations 
in which fate placed him. He was only conscious that 
the lot which had fallen to him at birth, from fortune's 
wheel, was almost a blank; but he recognized, at the same 
time, that a persevering will was sufficient to enable him, 
with the development of this gigantic new world, to grow 
into a position in life which might never perhaps be bril- 
liant, but which would improve rapidly and steadily. This 
gift which is laid in the cradle of every American he was 
resolved to turn to account, for he was certain that he 
possessed the power to will calmly and soberly. He seemed 
not to have yet formed any idea as to the special manner 
in which he would become the architect of his own fortune. 
Until the time had come when he- could use his own judg- 
ment in choosing between the opportunities life might af- 
ford him, he was satisfied with the consideration that 
knowledge and intellectual ability are a power in every 
calling. In his reading, he was spared the trouble of a 
choice. He had to take what chance threw in his way; 
and, although he did so, the number of books he could pro- 
cure was very small. But he not only read them, but 
studied them in such a way that he mastered them com- 



2^^^ READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

pletely and for all time. He dwelt on every new concep- 
tion and every half-understood idea with imperturbable 
perseverance, until he grasped it with such clearness that 
he could give it a form in which it became intelligible to 
minds much less well-trained than his own. The intel- 
lectual discipline he thereby acquired was worth more than 
the biggest bag of knowledge he could have carried away 
from the desk of a school. But this quiet, unwearying 
struggle, without extraneous help, without the incentive 
of a direct, practical object, which, notwithstanding he 
engaged in with all his strength, was, besides, a moral act; 
and all the more so because it had not its origin in an 
ardent, innate thirst for knowledge. Without being in- 
dolent, Lincoln was not one of those to whom labor, 
whether intellectual or physical, is a pleasure. And if, 
notwithstanding this, he not only worked as much as, and 
at what, he was obliged to, he did so partly because labor 
was the only means of success in life, but partly also be- 
cause he had so lively a sentiment of the moral importance 
of labor in general that he could not do otherwise than 
prosecute the intellectual labor to which he had once sub- 
jected himself, with the deep, sacrificing earnestness which 
is the precondition of that sentiment being developed to a 
clear understanding. Equipped with few requirements, but 
with a confidence in his intellectual strength, which, with 
all his modesty, was as strong as that in his muscular power, 
because like the latter its capacity had been tested long 
enough, he left the paternal roof and launched his ship on 
the broad stream of American life. 

The old figure may be taken here in its literal sense, for 
the real beginning of Lincoln's career was as a boatsman 
on a trip on the Mississippi to New Orleans. After some 
time he repeated the journey in the same capacity. The 
scenes of slave-life which he saw in New Orleans made a 
deep impression on him. It is not at all improbable that, 
as it is related he said himself, they decided his position 
on the slavery question. But we must not suppose that 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 2^-7 

the impressions made on him by slavery were so overwhelm- 
ing that they naturally ripened into a resolution to seek 
his real task in life in combating the '' peculiar institu- 
tion." He had not the temperament to become a fanatic, 
nor was his religious feeling of such intensity as to prompt 
the thought — and especially at so young an age — of his 
devoting his life to the service of a definite, ethical idea. 
He was not only a genuine, matter-of-fact American, but 
all his thoughts and feelings were still too directly and too 
completely under the influence of rough, backwoods life, for 
the sufferings of the slaves to throw him into sentimental 
paroxysms of marked violence. But the kind-natured eyes 
of a child in the surprisingly homely face of the uncouth 
giant told of a warm heart, to which the weak and the un- 
fortunate could always confidently appeal, while a bright 
mind looked out from them ; one which, under the guid- 
ance of such a heart, must have already learned too well 
how to distinguish between right and wrong, to pass such 
a wrong unmoved. . . . But we are undoubtedly war- 
ranted in assuming that the deepening of his thought on 
slavery did not begin until many years later, for we see it 
then keep pace exactly with the development of the struggle 
of parties about it; and it remained characteristic of him 
to the last, and was of immense importance during the 
Civil War, that he never, or in any particular, went in ad- 
vance of the time. Besides, he was still not only intel- 
lectually too immature, but he had not the leisure necessary 
to occupy himself tenaciously, profoundly, and earnestly 
with problems of such magnitude. If his thought, will and 
action had not had, for a long time more, the one aim to 
becoming something himself, he would scarcely ever have 
been able to co-operate in any important way, in the solu- 
tion of the slavery question. 

He had tried many things before he was admitted to the 
bar in Illinois. He had been a clerk in a store, a shop- 
keeper and surveyor — first as an assistant to the same 
John Calhoun who was afterwards to achieve such sad 



278 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

celebrity as president of the Lecompton convention. As a 
merchant he gave proof of no great capacity, and as a 
surveyor he merely discharged his duties with satisfaction, 
but did not, like so many adepts in that art, lay the foun- 
dation of a fortune of his own by speculation in land. By 
his political activity he began slowly to climb round after 
round of fortune's ladder. There were at this time no 
real professional politicians in the young state, and he cer- 
tainly was not one. But, considering his interest in all 
public affairs, it was natural that he should take an active 
part in the agitation preceding elections. His gift of ora- 
tory, materially helped by the great personal affection felt 
for him, and emphasized by his powerful gestures, soon 
brought him a local reputation. The success he met with 
in this field gave him an increased liking for it, and finally 
decided his choice of a profession. In the younger states 
politician and lawyer were coincident ideas much more than 
in the older states. As a minimum of legal knowledge 
sufficed for admission to the bar, it was almost a matter 
of course that the young, struggling politician who had to 
make a living should become a lawyer. When he thun- 
dered his monologues from the stump, or paraded his readi- 
ness and his wit in general conversation at the street cor- 
ners, before the court-house or about the glowing stove of 
the tavern, he acquired a clientele for himself who were 
ready to place their cases before judges and juries in his 
hands, and, on the other hand, the court-room was the high 
training-school for the stump and the tribune. In these 
growing commonwealths, lawyers and politicians could 
make their way without going to great expense for printer's 
ink and lamp oil. Success depended here, incomparably 
less than under more developed and more stable circum- 
stances, on knowledge ; and one attained it most easily and 
most certainly by continually mingling with the people in 
their daily life and avocations. 

In the younger states it is seen, more clearly than any- 
where else, that in the United States the sole source of all 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 279 

power is the people ; and the people stand most readily and 
firmly by those in whose leadership the pulse-beat of their 
own thought, feeling and will is felt most powerfully. But 
this does not imply that the masses begin to turn away from 
a leader when he goes beyond a certain line close to their 
own intellectual and moral level. So long as they feel that 
he has not become alienated from them at heart, they grow 
prouder of him the higher he towers above all ; for his 
greatness raises themselves in their own eyes. Hence, not- 
withstanding the brilliant success which may be achieved 
in the United States with the aid of the arts of the dema- 
gogue, the politician, even there, builds most securely, who 
does not descend to the level of the masses, but who en- 
deavors, in his own efforts towards a lofty goal, to lift 
them up with him by pure means. If Lincoln wished to 
do this, he had to begin to give his intellectual ability a 
much greater breadth and much greater depth than it had 
hitherto had, by earnest labor. This he did by honest in- 
dustry. His legal book-knowledge, indeed, never exceeded 
rather narrow limits ; but, by the study of the cases con- 
fided to him, he trained his power of logical thinking so 
thoroughly that, notwithstanding, he gradually became a 
lawyer of great distinction. He learned quickly and 
surely to discover the decisive points, and acquired such 
skill in the art he had practiced early, of clothing his 
thoughts in the simplest and clearest form, that competent 
judges said that his statement of a case was so convincing 
that argument was scarcely necessary in order to pronounce 
a correct judgment. Greater praise could hardly have 
been bestowed upon him, for this meant that the lawyer 
needed only always to serve his client in such a way as to 
remain, at all times, an honest servant of the law and of 
justice. 

This high moral earnestness became more and more 
characteristic of his professional activity as his intellectual 
development advanced, and it entered also into his political 
life in ever-increasing measure. By his efficiency in the 



28o READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

legislature (1834-1842), he worked himself into so dis- 
tinguished a position in the party that he — the only Whig 
in Illinois^ — was elected by a great majority to the Thir- 
tieth Congress (1847-1849), although the opposing candi- 
date was the popular preacher, Cartwright. According to 
the customs of the party at the time, in Illinois, a re-elec- 
tion was absolutely excluded, and on that account alone 
the part he played on this, his first appearance on the na- 
tional stage, had to be a modest one. Notwithstanding this, 
he had the courage to take the initiative in a step in the 
slavery question which might have had far-reaching conse- 
quences if it had been crowned with success. And it 
seemed for a moment that this was not impossible; for his 
propositions were not only unquestionably capable of being 
carried out, but were so evidently drawn up in the spirit 
of a really '' honest broker " that the representatives of the 
two opposing camps, who first obtained information of it, 
considered it acceptable. The bill introduced by him on 
the 1 6th of January, 1849, for the gradual abolition of 
slavery in the District of Columbia, met with the approval 
of the mayor of Washington as well as of Giddings.^ As 
it not only assured full compensation to the owners of the 
slaves, but provided that the law should not go into force 
until after it had been established by a vote that the popu- 
lation of the District was in favor of it, it must seem at the 
first glance less surprising that Colonel Seaton agreed to it 
than that Giddings did. Since Lincoln, as appears from 
Seaton's questions, did not wish merely to make a demon- 
stration, but actually hoped for success, his bill really only 
proved how deeply sunk in optimistic illusion he still was 
as to the nature of the struggle. Had not even the most 
moderate representatives of the south for years declared 
the abolition of slavery in the District, without the consent 
of Maryland and Virginia, a breach of good faith? Did 

1 Meaning the only Whig elected to Congress from Ihinois. 

2 Joshua R. Giddings, an anti-slavery man, Representative from 
Ohio in Congress. 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 281 

not the slavocrats know how greatly all their successes 
hitherto had been facilitated by the fact that the federal 
capital was situated in the domain of slavery, or had they 
lost all sense of the importance of moral defeats? Was 
it not a presupposition of every project of emancipation 
that slavery was an evil? And how far were the great 
majority of slaveholders still from admitting this in words! 
The bill was an invitation to the District to give its consent 
to a terrible blow at the interests of the slavocracy, and 
wanted to pay for it out of the federal treasury; that is, 
in part with the money of the south. It must, therefore, 
have been unacceptable to the representatives of the south 
in proportion as it offered more to the people of the Dis- 
trict, and especially to the slaveholders in it. 

The struggles of the next six years made Lincoln under- 
stand that his bill was a chase, and why it was a chase, 
after an intangible shadow. In the remarkable letter of 
August 15, 1855, to which reference was made above, he 
says: The hope of a peaceful extinction of slavery is 
a delusion, because the south will not give it up. The 
fact that this was the attitude of the south towards the 
question had long been well known to the whole people. 
The point of significance was that Lincoln had the courage 
of the truth to admit to himself that from that fact it fol- 
lowed directly that the peaceful extinction of slavery was 
impossible. While Seward, three years later, in his Roch- 
ester speech,^ still endeavored to deceive himself and the 
people on this subject, Lincoln even now declared the irre- 
pressibleness of the conflict in words from which it was 
clearly evident what would be the final issue. " Our 

3 Seward, Senator from New York and, later, Secretary of State 
in Lincoln's Cabinet, declared in a speech in Rochester, in 1858, 
referring to the struggle between slavery and freedom : " It is an 
irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it 
means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, be- 
come either entirely a slave-holding nation or entirely a free-labor 
nation." 



282 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

political problem is, ' Can we, as a nation, continue together 
permanently forever — half slaves and half free ? ' " * that 
is : Is the permanent preservation of the Union, under the 
present constitution, possible? 

But what was gained by the fact that Lincoln saw far- 
ther than Seward, if his two concluding sentences, '' The 
problem is too mighty for me. May God in His mercy 
superintend the solution," were intended to announce that 
he was resigned to let the ^ inevitable take its course? The 
most important thing was not whether what was right was 
recognized, but whether it was done. Even some months 
before Seward had cast the fire-brand term " irrepressible 
conflict " among the people, Lincoln had proven that in 
this respect he would be a much more reliable leader of 
the Republicans than many of the most notable men in the 
party, who were not very far from believing that its whole 
political judgment and conscience were personified in them- 
selves, and who saw this bold assumption generally recog- 
nized by a large circle of the people. 

H. von Hoist : Constitutional and Political History of 
the United States, Vol. VI, pp. 269-278. Callaghan and 
Co., Chicago, 1889. 

Questions 

Describe Lincoln's early life and his struggle to get knowledge. 
What is said of the moral character of the struggle for knowledge? 
Where and how did he first get his impression of the wrongfulness 
of slavery? Did these impressions reach maturity in conviction at 
once? Give the connection between law and politics in the new 
country. What is said of the source of all power in the United 
States? How can one obtain real leadership? What of Lincoln's 
success at the bar? When was he in Congress? What measure 
of significance did he propose there? Did he come to realize 
that the conflict between slavery and freedom was irrepressible ? 

4 Lincoln, in a speech delivered in Springfield, Illinois, June 17, 
1858, declared that he did not believe that the nation could per- 
manently endure half slave and half free. See in this book Selec- 
tion No. 41. This was four months before Seward's " Irrepressible 
Conflict " speech. 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 283 

What, do you think, if you judge from this extract, was the source 
of Lincohv's power and greatness? 

B 

LINCOLN'S FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

Fellow-Citizens of the United States: 

In compliance with a custom as old as the Government 
itself, I appear before you to address you briefly, and to 
take, in your presence, the oath prescribed by the Constitu- 
tion of the United States to be taken by the President be- 
fore he enters on the execution of his office. 

I do not consider it necessary, at present, for me to dis- 
cuss those matters of administration about which there is 
no special anxiety or excitement. Apprehension seems to 
exist among the people of the southern States, that, by the 
accession of a Republican Administration, their property 
and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. 
There has never been any reasonable cause for such appre- 
hension. Indeed the most ample evidence to the contrary 
has all the while existed, and been open to their inspection. 
It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who 
now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those 
speeches, when I declare that " I have no purpose, directly 
or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in 
the States where it exists." I believe I have no lawful 
right to do so; and I have no inclination to do so. Those 
who nominated and elected me, did so with the full knowl- 
edge that I had made this and many similar declarations, 
and had never recanted them. . . . 

A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only 
menaced, is now formidably attempted. I hold that in the 
contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution, the 
L^nion of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, 
if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national 
governments. It is safe to assert that no government 
proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own 



284 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

termination. Continue to execute all the express pro- 
visions of our national Constitution, and the Union will 
endure forever, it being impossible to destroy it except 
by some action not provided for in the instrument it- 
self. 

Again, if the United States be not a government proper, 
but an association of States in the nature of a contract 
merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less 
than all the parties who made it? One party to a contract 
may violate it — break it, so to speak; but does it not re- 
quire all to lawfully rescind it? Descending from these 
general principles we find the proposition that in legal con- 
templation the Union is perpetual, confirmed by the history 
of the Union itself. 

The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was 
formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It 
was matured and continued in the Declaration of Independ- 
ence in 1776. It was further matured, and the faith of 
all the then thirteen States expressly plighted and engaged 
that it should be perpetual, by the Articles of Confedera- 
tion, in 1778; and finally, in 1787, one of the declared ob- 
jects for ordaining and establishing the Constitution was 
to form a more perfect Union. But if the destruction of 
the Union by one or by a part only of the States be law- 
fully possible, the Union is less than before, the Constitu- 
tion having lost the vital element of perpetuity. 

It follows from these views that no State, upon its own 
mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union; that re- 
solves and ordinances to that effect, are legally void ; and 
that acts of violence within any State or States against the 
authority of the United States, are insurrectionary or revo- 
lutionary, according to circumstances. 

I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution 
and the laws, the Union is unbroken, and, to the extent of 
my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself ex- 
pressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union shall 
be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this, which 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 285 

I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, I shall per- 
fectly perform it, so far as is practicable, unless my right- 
ful masters, the American people, shall withhold the req- 
uisition, or in some authoritative manner direct the con- 
trary. 

I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as 
the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitution- 
ally defend and maintain itself. 

In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence, and 
there shall be none unless it is forced upon the national 
authority. 

The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, 
and possess the property and places belonging to the Gov- 
ernment, and collect the duties and imposts; but beyond 
what may be necessary for these objects there will be no 
invasion, no using of force against or among the people 
anywhere. 

V^^here hostility to the United States shall be so great 
and so universal as to prevent competent resident citizens 
from holding the Federal offices, there will be no attempt 
to force obnoxious strangers among the people that object. 
While the strict legal right may exist of the Government 
to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do 
so would be so irritating, and so nearly impracticable 
withal, that I deem it better to forego for the time the uses 
of such offices. 

The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished 
in all parts of the Union. 

So far as possible, the people everywhere shall have that 
sense of perfect security which is most favorable to calm 
thought and reflection. 

The course here indicated will be followed, unless cur- 
rent events and experience shall show a modification or 
change to be proper; and in every case and exigency 
my best discretion will be exercised according to the cir- 
cumstances actually existing, and with a view and hope 
of a peaceful solution of the national troubles, and the 



286 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections. . . . 

. . . All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals 
are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and nega- 
tions, guaranties and prohibitions in the Constitution, that 
controversies never arise concerning them. But no or- 
ganic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically 
applicable to every question which may occur in practical 
administration. . . . From questions of this class, spring 
all our constitutional controversies, and we divide upon 
them into majorities and minorities. 

If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or 
the Government must cease. There is no alternative for 
continuing the Government but acquiescence on the one 
side or the other. If a minority in such a case, will secede 
rather than acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn 
will ruin and divide them, for a minority of their own will 
secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be con- 
trolled by such a minority. For instance, why not any 
portion of a new confederacy, a year or two hence, ar- 
bitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present 
Union now claim to secede from it? All who cherish dis- 
union sentiments are now being educated to the exact 
temper of doing this. Is there such perfect identity of 
interests among the States to compose a new Union as to 
produce harmony only, and prevent renewed secession? 
Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of 
anarchy. 

A majority held in restraint by constitutional check and 
limitation, and always changing easily with deliberate 
changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only 
true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it, does, 
of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is 
impossible; the rule of a majority, as a permanent arrange- 
ment, is wholly inadmissible. So that, rejecting the ma- 
jority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all 
that is left. . . . 

Physically speaking, we cannot separate — we cannot 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 287 

remove our respective sections from each other, nor build 
an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife 
may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond 
the reach of each other, but the different parts of our coun- 
try cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face; 
and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue 
between them. Is it possible, then, to make that inter- 
course more advantageous or more satisfactory after sep- 
aration than before? Can aliens make treaties easier than 
friends can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully 
enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? 
Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always ; and when, 
after much loss on both sides and no gain on either, you 
cease fighting, the identical questions as to terms of inter- 
course are again upon you. 

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people 
who inhabit it. W^henever they shall grow weary of the 
existing government, they can exercise their constitutional 
right of amending, or their revolutionary right to dismem- 
ber or overthrow it. . . . 

The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the 
people, and they have conferred none upon him to fix the 
terms for the separation of the States. The people them- 
selves, also can do this if they choose, but the Executive, as 
such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer 
the present Government as it came to his hands, and to 
transmit it unimpaired by him to his successor. Why 
should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate 
justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope 
in the world? In our present differences is either party 
without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty 
Ruler of nations, with his eternal truth and justice, be on 
your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth 
and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this 
great tribunal, the American people. By the frame of the 
Government under which we live, this -same people have 
wisely given their public servants but little power for mis- 



288 READINGS IN A^IKRICAN HISTORY 

chief, and have with equal wisdom provided for the return 
of that Httle to their own hands at very short intervals. 
While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no ad- 
ministration, by any extreme wickedness or folly, can very 
seriously injure the Government in the short space of four 
years. . . . 

In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and 
not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The 
Government will not assail you. 

You can have no conflict without being yourselves the 
aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to de- 
stroy the Government ; while I shall have the most solemn 
one to *' preserve, protect, and defend " it. 

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. 
We must not be enemies. Though passion may have 
strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. 

The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every bat- 
tle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearth- 
stone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of 
the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by 
the better angels of our nature. 

Frank Moore: RchcUion Record, Vol. I, Documents, 
pp. 36-39. New York, 1867. 

Questions 

Was Lincoln willing to submit to any further extension of slavery 
in the Territories? What did Lincoln announce as his policy to- 
ward slavery? Did Lincoln think that secession was a right re- 
served for the States in the Constitution ? Give the arguments 
that Lincoln advanced for the perpetuity of the Union? Admitting 
the Southern view that the Constitution was an agreement be- 
tween independent States, how did Lincoln answer the argument 
drawn from it in justification of the right of secession? Explain 
the statement that the Union is older than the Constitution. What 
did Lincoln say would be his policy toward the States that claimed 
to have seceded? What was to be his policy with respect to United 
States forts in States that had seceded? What with respect to the 
mails and the collection of the customs? Did he intend to appoint 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 289 

Northerners to office in seceded States if he could not get citizens 
of those States to accept office from the United States? How would 
his statement on this matter detract from the force of his former 
statements regarding his duty to enforce the law in the seceded 
territory? Did he reserve the right to depart from this pohcy? 
Under what conditions? Admitting the right and expediency of 
secession, did he think that there could be any permanent cohesion 
between the seceded States? How did he consider secession a de- 
parture from the principle of majority rule? What physical reasons 
rendered vain the hope of securing peaceful relations between the 
two sections if one of them seceded? 



XLIV 

JEFFERSON DAVIS'S INAUGURAL 

Jefferson Davis of Mississippi was chosen President of the 
Confederate States. This inaugural address, delivered, Feb- 
ruary 18, 1861, is an excellent presentation of the position of 
the South, its sentiment toward the Union, and the reasons or 
the justification for secession. 

. . . Our present condition, achieved in a manner un- 
precedented in the history of nations, illustrates the Ameri- 
can idea that governments rest upon the consent of the 
governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter and 
aboHsh governments whenever they become destructive to 
the ends for which they were established. The declared 
compact of the Union from which we have withdrawn was 
to establish justice, ensure domestic tranquillity, provide 
for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and 
secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos- 
terity; and when in the judgment of the sovereign States 
now composing this confederacy, it has been perverted from 
the purposes for which it was ordained, and ceased to an- 
swer the ends for which it w^as established, a peaceful ap- 
peal to the ballot-box declared that, so far as they were 
concerned, the government created by that compact should 
cease to exist. In this they merely asserted the right which 
20 



290 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

the Declaration of Independence of 1776 defined to be in- 
alienable. Of the time and occasion of its exercise they 
as sovereigns were the final judges, each for itself. The 
impartial, enlightened verdict of mankind will vindicate 
the rectitude of our conduct; and He who knows the hearts 
of men will judge of the sincerity with which we labored 
to preserve the government of our fathers in its spirit. . . . 

An agricultural people, whose chief interest is the export 
of a commodity required in every manufacturing country, 
our true policy is peace, and the freest trade which our 
necessities will permit. It is alike our interest and that of 
all those to whom we would sell and from whom we would 
buy, that there should be the fewest practicable restric- 
tions upon the interchange of commodities. There can be 
but little rivalry between ours and any manufacturing or 
navigating community, such as the northeastern States of 
the American Union. It must follow, therefore, that mu- 
tual interest would invite good will and kind offices. If, 
however, passion or lust of dominion should cloud the 
judgment or flame the ambition of those States, we must 
prepare to meet the emergency and maintain by the final 
arbitrament of the sword the position which we have as- 
sumed among the nations of the earth. 

We have entered upon a career of independence, and it 
must be inflexibly pursued through many years of con- 
troversy with our late associates of the Northern States. 
We have vainly endeavored to secure tranquillity and ob- 
tain respect for the rights to which we were entitled. As 
a necessity, not a choice, we have resorted to the remedy of 
separation, and henceforth our energies must be directed 
to the conduct of our own affairs, and the perpetuity of the 
confederacy which we have formed. . . . 

As a consequence of our new condition, and with a view 
to meet anticipated wants, it will be necessary to provide a 
speedy and efficient organization of the branches of the 
Executive department having special charge of foreign in- 
tercourse, finance, military afifairs, and postal service. 



THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR 291 

For purposes of defense the Confederate States may, un- 
der ordinary circumstances, rely mainly upon their militia; 
but it is deemed advisable, in the present condition of 
affairs, that the.re should be a well instructed, disciplined 
army, more numerous than would usually be required on a 
peace establishment. I also suggest that, for the protec- 
tion of our harbors and commerce on the high seas, a navy 
adapted to those objects will be required. These necessi- 
ties have, doubtless, engaged the attention of Congress. 

Frank Moore: Rebellion Record, Vol. I, Documents, 

pp. 31. 32. 

Questions 

How did Jefferson Davis use the example of the American Revo- 
lution as a justification of the secession of the Southern States? 
What relations did Davis think the Confederate States might en- 
joy with the North? Did he seem to think that the South might 
have the alternative of returning to the Union at a later time? 



PART VIII 

THE CIVIL WAR 

XLV 

THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 

Gideon Welles was Secretary of the Navy in Lincoln's Cab- 
inet. The diary he kept of his political life in Washington has 
lately been published. The following extract from it describes 
the Cabinet meeting at which the Emancipation Proclamation 
was approved. 

September 22. A special Cabinet-meeting. The subject 
was the Proclamation for emancipating the slaves after a 
certain date, in States that shall then be in rebellion. For 
several weeks the subject has been suspended, but the Presi- 
dent says never lost sight of. When it was submitted, and 
now in taking up the Proclamation, the President stated 
that the question was finally decided, the act and the conse- 
quences were his, but that he felt it due to us to make us 
acquainted with the fact and to invite criticism on the pa- 
per which he had prepared. There were, he had found, not 
unexpectedly, some differences in the Cabinet, but he had, 
after ascertaining in his own way the views of each and 
all, individually and collectively, formed his own conclu- 
sions and made his own decisions. In the course of the 
discussion on this paper, which was long, earnest, and on 
the general principle involved, harmonious, he remarked 
that he had made a vow, a covenant, that if God gave us 
the victory in the approaching battle, he would consider it 
an indication of Divine will, and that it was his duty to 
move forward in the cause of emancipation. It might be 

292 



THE CIVIL WAR 293 

thought strange, he said, that he had in this way submitted 
the disposal of matters when the way was not clear to his 
mind what he should do. God had decided this question 
in favor of the slaves. He was satisfied it was right, was 
confirmed and strengthened in his action by the vow and 
the results. His mind was fixed, his decision made, but 
he wished his paper announcing his course as correct in 
terms as it could be made without any change in his de- 
termination. He read the document. One or two unim- 
portant amendments suggested by Seward were approved. 
It was then handed to the Secretary of State to publish 
to-morrow. . . . 

The question of power, authority, in the Government 
to set free the slaves was not much discussed at this 
meeting, but had been canvassed by the President in 
private conversation with the members individually. Some 
thought legislation advisable before the step was taken, but 
Congress was clothed with no authority on this subject, 
nor is the Executive, except under the war power, — mili- 
tary necessity, martial law, when there can be no legisla- 
tion. ... It is momentous both in its immediate and re- 
mote results, and an exercise of extraordinary power which 
cannot be justified on mere humanitarian principles, and 
would never have been attempted but to preserve the na- 
tional existence. The slaves must be with us or against us 
in the War. Let us have them. These were my convic- 
tions and this the drift of the discussion. 

Diary of Gideon Welles, Vol. I, pp. 142, 143. Houghton 
Mifflin Co., Boston, 191 1. 

Questions 

What power vested in the president of the United States enabled 
Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation? Why could not 
Congress act? Was the sense of the wrongfulness of slavery the 
decisive reason for the issuance of the Proclamation? If so, was 
that the ostensible or, so to speak, the legal reason? 



294 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

XLVI 

THE SOUTHERN AR^IY 

A Virginian here shows us how the aristocratic formation of 
Southern society, which slavery had perpetuated, transferred it- 
self to the Southern army. The young Southern aristocrat ac- 
customed all his life to contact with slaves who owed hint un- 
questioning obedience, was slow as a soldier to learn himself 
the lesson that he had taught his slaves. The difficulty of dis- 
ciplining the Southern armies, as Eggleston saw it, was the 
difficulty of persuading high-spirited young men of undoubted 
personal courage to learn to act together under orders. There 
was doubtless much of the same condition or sentiment in the 
Northern army. As the months went by the armies on both 
sides, if lacking in the trivialities of discipline, became fine fight- 
ing machines. One would not think of Stonewall Jackson's 
army as anything less than a body with which the great com- 
mander could work confidently. 

Our ideas of the life and business of a soldier were 
drawn chiefly from the adventures of IvanJioe and Charles 
O'MaUey/ two worthies with whose personal history al- 
most every man in the army w^as familiar. The men who 
volunteered went to war of their own accord, and were 
wholly unaccustomed to acting on any other than their own 
motion. They were hardy lovers of field sports, accus- 
tomed to out-door life, and in all physical respects excellent 
material of w-hich to make an army. But they w^ere not 
used to control of any sort, and were not supposed to obey 
anybody except for good and sufficient reason given. . . . 
Ofif drill they did as they pleased, holding themselves gen- 
tlemen, and as such bound to consult only their own wills. 
Their officers were of themselves, chosen by election, and 

1 The sentimental, convivial, love-making hero of a novel of the 
Peninsular War by Charles Lever, always in trouble with his 
superior officers for breaches of discipline, and always redeeming 
himself by his social graces or by some act of individual daring. 



THE CIVIL WAR 295 

subject, by custom, to enforced resignation upon petition 
of the men. Only corporals cared sufficiently little for 
their position to risk any magnifying of their office by the 
enforcement of discipline. I make of them an honorable 
exception, out of regard for the sturdy corporal who, at 
Ashland, marched six of us (a guard detail) through the 
very middle of a puddle, assigning as his reason for doing 
so the fact that " It's plagued little authority they give us 
corporals, and I mean to use that little, anyhow." . . . 

With troops of this kind, the reader will readily under- 
stand, a feeling of very democratic equality prevailed, so 
far at least as military rank had anything to do with it. 
Officers were no better than men, and so officers and men 
messed and slept together on terms of entire equality, 
quarreling and even fighting now and then, in a gentle- 
manly way, but without a thought of allowing differences of 
military rank to have any influence in the matter. . . . 

There was one sort of rank, however, which was both 
maintained and respected from the first, namely, that of 
social life. The line of demarkation between gentry and 
common people is not more sharply drawn anywhere than 
in Virginia. . . . The man of good family felt himself 
superior, as in most cases he unquestionably was, to his 
fellow-soldier of less excellent birth ; and this distinction 
was sufficient, during the early years of the war, to over- 
ride everything like military rank. In one instance which 
I remember, a young private asserted his superiority of 
social standing so effectually as to extort from the lieu- 
tenant commanding his company a public apology for an in- 
sult offered in the subjection of the private to double duty, 
as a punishment for absence from roll-call. . . . 

It was in this undisciplined state that the men who after- 
wards made up the army under Lee were sent to the field 
to meet the enemy at Bull Run and elsewhere, and the only 
wonder is that they were ever able to fight at all. They 
were certainly not soldiers. They were as ignorant of the 
alphabet of obedience as their officers were of the art of 



296 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

commanding. And yet they acquitted themselves reason- 
ably well, a fact which can be explained only by reference 
to the causes of their insubordination in camp. These men 
were the people of the South, and the war was their own ; 
wherefore they fought to win it of their own accord and not 
at all because their officers commanded them to do so. 
Their personal spirit and their intelligence were their 
sole elements of strength. Death has few terrors for such 
men, as compared with dishonor, and so they needed no 
officers at all, and no discipline, to insure their personal 
good conduct on the field of battle. . . . 

During the spring and early summer of 1861, the men 
did not dream that they were to be paid anything for their 
services or even that the government was to clothe them. 
They had bought their own uniforms, and whenever these 
wore out they ordered new ones to be sent, by the first op- 
portunity, from home. . . . 

The unanimity of the people was simply marvelous. So 
long as the question of secession was under discussion, 
opinions were both various and violent. The moment se- 
cession was finally determined upon, a revolution was 
wrought. There was no longer anything to discuss, and 
so discussion ceased. Men got ready for war, and delicate 
women with equal spirit sent them off w^ith smiling faces. 
The man who tarried at home for never so brief a time, 
after the call to arms had been given, found it necessary to 
explain himself to every woman of his acquaintance, and no 
explanation was sufficient to shield him from the social 
ostracism consequent upon any long tarrying. Through- 
out the war it was the same, and when the war ended the 
men who lived to return were greeted with sad faces by 
those who had cheerfully and even joyously sent them 
forth to the battle. 

Under these circumstances, the reader will readily un- 
derstand, the first call for troops took nearly all the men 
of \^irginia away from their homes. Even the boys in the 
colleges and schools enlisted, and these establishments were 



THE CIVIL WAR 297 

forced to suspend for want of students. In one college the 
president organized the students, and, making himself their 
commander, led them directly from the class-room to the 
field. So strong and all-embracing was the thought that 
every man owed it to the community to become a soldier, 
that even clergymen went into 'the army by the score, and 
large districts of country were left too without a physician, 
until the people could secure, by means of a memorial, the 
unanimous vote of the company to which some favorite 
physician belonged, declaring it to be his patriotic duty to 
remain at home. Without such an instruction from his 
comrades no physician would consent to withdraw, and 
even with it very many of them preferred to serve in the 
ranks. 

These were the men of whom the Confederate army was 
for the first year or two chiefly composed. After that the 
conscription brought in a good deal of material which was 
worse than useless. There were some excellent soldiers 
who came into the army as conscripts, but they were ex- 
ceptions to the rule. For the most part the men whose 
bodies were thus lugged in by force had no spirits to bring 
with them. . . . They were a leaven of demoralization 
which the army would have been better without. But they 
were comparatively few in number, and as the character of 
the army was crystallized long before these men came into 
it at all, they had little influence in determining the conduct 
of the whole. If they added nothing to our strength, they 
could do little to weaken us, and in any estimate of the 
character of the Confederate army they hardly count at all. 
The men who early in the war struggled for a place in the 
front rank, whenever there was chance of a fight, and 
thought themselves unlucky if they failed to get it, are the 
men who gave character afterwards to the well-organized 
and well-disciplined army which so long contested the 
ground before Richmond. They did become soldiers after 
awhile, well regulated and thoroughly efifective. The proc- 
ess of disciplining them took away none of their personal 



298 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

spirit or their personal interest in the war, but it taught 
them the value of unquestioning obedience and the virtue 
there was in yielding it. I remember very well the ex- 
treme coolness with which, in one of the valley skirmishes, 
a few days before the first battle of Bull Run, a gentleman 
private in my own company rode out of the ranks for the 
purpose of suggesting to J. E. B. Stuart the propriety of 
charging a gun which was shelling us, and which seemed 
nearer to us than to its supporting infantry. I heard an- 
other gentleman without rank, who had brought a dispatch 
to Stonewall Jackson, request that officer to " cut the an- 
swer short," on the ground that his horse was a little lame 
and he feared his inability to deliver it as promptly as was 
desirable. . . . 

This personal interest in the war, which in their un- 
disciplined beginning led them into indiscreet meddling with 
details of policy belonging to their superiors, served to 
sustain them when as disciplined soldiers they were called 
upon to bear a degree of hardship of which they had never 
dreamed. They learned to trust the management of affairs 
to the officers, asking no questions but finding their own 
greatest usefulness in cheerful and ready obedience. The 
wish to help which made them unsoldierly at first, served to 
make them especially good soldiers when it was duly tem- 
pered with discipline and directed by experience. . . . ' 

George Gary Eggleston, A Rebel's Recollections, pp. 
31-53, passim. G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and Lon- 
don, 1875. 

Questions 

What soldierly qualities did the Confederate volunteers of 1861 
possess? Illustrate their disregard of discipline. Had the men the 
habit of unquestioning obedience to their officers? Was there any 
distinction preserved between officers and men? Explain the 
strength of social distinctions in the army. According to the 
writer, was the social class of which he writes unanimous in sup- 
port of the war? How was the quality of the army weakened by 
the conscripts of later years? Probably again the same thing was 



THE CIVIL WAR 299 

true of the Northern army. The undisciplined volunteers of the 
first year or two were tremendously in earnest. 



XL VII 

WHEN MONEY V^AS EASY 

The cleverness of this description of conditions under a 
regime of paper money is inimitable. At the same time the 
facts recorded in it are worth consideration from an economic 
standpoint. The whole community in the South was very 
doubtful as to whether this paper money, which was so lavishly 
issued and so easy to get, would ever be worth its face value 
in gold or silver. Accordingly, people thought they should 
get prices for their commodities in paper money many times 
greater than the ordinary prices of the articles. These prices 
in depreciated paper were simply regulated by the individual 
estimates of what prices ought to be. For exact transactions 
men fell back into the habit of exchanging articles one for the 
other at their old specie values; and this method which exists 
in simple and primitive communities replaced the common 
method of paying for purchases in metallic money. 

It seems a remarkable fact that during the late Con- 
gressional travail with the currency question/ no one of 
the people in or out of Congress, who were concerned lest 
there should not be enough money in the country to " move 
the crops," ever took upon himself the pleasing task of 
rehearsing the late Confederacy's financial story, for the 
purpose of showing by example how simple and easy a thing 
it is to create wealth out of nothing by magic revolutions 
of the printing-press, and to make rich, by act of Congress, 
everybody not too lazy to gather free dollars into a pile. 
The story has all the flavor of the Princess Scheherezades 

iRe alludes to the pressure for currency to pay harvest hands 
that occurs every Autumn in the United States. In 1871 and 1873, 
the Government issued additional paper money to the banks for use 
in " moving the crops." 



300 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

romances, with the additional merit of being historically 
true. For once a whole people was rich. Money was 
" easy " enough to satisfy everybody and everybody had 
it in unstinted measure. . . . 

The financial system adopted by the Confederate gov- 
ernment was singularly simple and free from technicalities. 
It consisted chiefly in the issue of treasury notes enough to 
meet all the expenses of the government, and in the pres- 
ent advanced state of the art of printing there was but one 
difficulty incident to this process ; namely, the impossibility 
of having the notes signed in the Treasury Department, as 
fast as they were needed. There happened, however, to be 
several thousand young ladies in Richmond willing to accept 
light and remunerative employment at their homes, and as 
it was really a matter of small moment whose names the 
notes bore, they were given out in sheets to these young 
ladies, who signed and returned them for a consideration. 
I shall not undertake to guess how many Confederate 
treasury notes were issued. Indeed I am credibly informed 
by a gentleman who was high in office in the Treasury De- 
partment, that even the secretary himself did not certainly 
know. . . . 

We knew only that money was astonishingly abundant. 
Provisions fell short sometimes, and the supply of clothing 
was not always as large as we should have liked, but nobody 
found it difficult to get money enough. It was to be had 
almost for the asking. And to some extent the abundance 
of the currency really seemed to atone for its extreme bad- 
ness. Going the rounds of the pickets on the coast of South 
CaroHna, one day, in 1863, I heard a conversation between 
a Confederate and a Union soldier, stationed on opposite 
sides of a little inlet, in the course of which this point was 
brought out. 

Union Soldier. Aren't times rather hard over there, 
Johnny ? 

Confederate Soldier. Not at all. We've all the neces- 
saries of life. 



THE CIVIL WAR 30I 

U. S. Yes : but how about luxuries ? You never see 
any coffee nowadays, do you? 

C. S. Plenty of it. 

U, S, Isn't it pretty high? 

C. S. Forty dollars a pound, that's all. 

U. S, Whew! Don't you call that high? 

C. S. (after reflecting). Well, perhaps it is a trifle 
uppish, but then you never saw money so plentiful as it 
is with us. We hardly know what to do with it, and don't 
mind paying high prices for things we want. 

And that was the universal feeling. Money was so 
easily got, and its value was so utterly uncertain, that we 
were never able to determine what was a fair price for 
anything. We fell into the habit of paying whatever was 
asked, knowing that to-morrow we should have to pay 
more. Speculation became the easiest and surest thing im- 
aginable. The speculator saw no risks of loss. Every ar- 
ticle of merchandise rose in value every day, and to buy 
anything this week and sell it next was to make an enor- 
mous profit quite as a matter of course. . . . 

The prices which obtained were almost fabulous, and 
singularly enough there seemed to be no sort of ratio ex- 
isting between the values of different articles. I bought 
coffee at forty dollars and tea at thirty dollars a pound on 
the same day. 

My dinner at a hotel cost me twenty dollars, while five 
dollars gained me a seat in the dress circle of the theater. 
I paid one dollar the next morning for a copy of the 
Examiner, but I might have got the Whig, Dispatch, En- 
quirer, or Sentinel, for half that sum. For some wretched 
tallow candles I paid ten dollars a pound. The utter ab- 
sence of proportion between these several prices is appar- 
ent, and I know of no way of explaining it except upon 
the theory that the unstable character of the money had 
superinduced a reckless disregard of all value on the part 
of both buyers and sellers. A facetious friend used to say 
prices were so high that nobody could see them, and that 



302 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

they " got mixed for want of supervision." He held, how- 
ever, that the difference between the old and new order of 
things was a trifling one. " Before the war," he said, " I 
went to market with the money in my pocket, and brought 
back my purchases in a basket ; now I take the money in the 
basket, and bring the things home in my pocket." . . . 

The government's course in levying a tax in kind, as the 
only possible way of making the taxation amount to any- 
thing, led speedily to the adoption of a similar plan, as far 
as possible, by the people. A physician would order from 
his planter friend ten or twenty visits' worth of corn, and 
the transaction was a perfectly intelligible one to both. 
The visits would be counted at ante-war rates, and the 
corn estimated by the same standard. In the early spring 
of 1865 I wanted a horse, and a friend having one to 
spare, I sent for the animal, offering to pay whatever the 
owner should ask for it. He could not fix a price, hav- 
ing literally no standard of value to which he could ap- 
peal, but he sent me the horse, writing, in reply to my 
note : — 

" Take the horse, and when the war shall be over, if we 
are both alive and you are able, give me as good a one in 
return. Don't send any note or due-bill. It might com- 
plicate matters if either should die." 

A few months later, I paid my debt by returning the 
very horse I had bought. I give this incident merely to 
show how utterly without financial compass or rudder we 
were. ... 

In the cities, living was not by any means so easy as in 
the country. Business was paralyzed, and abundant as 
money was, it seems almost incredible that city people got 
enough of it to live on. Very many of them, were em- 
ployed, however, in various capacities, in the arsenals, de- 
partments, bureaus, etc., and these were allowed to buy 
rations at fixed rates, after the postofiice clerks in Rich- 
mond had brought matters to a crisis by resigning their 
clerkships to go into the army, because they could not sup- 



THE CIVIL WAR 303 

port life on their salaries of nine thousand dollars a 
year. . . . 

George Gary Eggleston : A Rebel's Recollections, pp. yy- 
95, passim. 

Questions 

In what sense had the prices of articles in paper money " got 
mixed for want of supervision"? Did the relative value of articles 
have anything to do with their paper money prices ? How were 
transactions carried on by barter or exchange of goods ? 



PART IX 

RECONSTRUCTION 

XLVIII 

THE DOMINANT THEORY OF RECON- 
STRUCTION 

The two following extracts from speeches of Thaddeus 
Stevens in Congress in 1865 and 1867 illustrate his complete 
lack of tolerance and regard for the feelings of the South, and 
his determination to secure the supremacy of the Republican 
party at any cost. As he led the party in the House of Repre- 
sentatives and practically dictated its programme of Recon- 
struction, his ideas and prejudices were embodied to a great 
extent in the legislation for the South. Contrast the harshness 
of his language with the consideration for Lee's feelings the 
Union officers showed at Appomattox. 



It matters but little . . . whether you call them States 
out of the Union and now conquered territories, or assert 
that because the Constitution forbids them to do what they 
did do, that they are therefore only dead as to all national 
and political action, and will remain so until the Govern- 
ment shall breathe into them the breath of life anew and 
permit them to occupy their former position. In other 
words, that they are not out of the Union, but are only dead 
carcasses lying within the Union. In either case, it is very 
plain that it requires the action of Congress to enable them 
to form a State government and send representatives to 
Congress. . . . Dead men cannot raise themselves. Dead 
States cannot restore their own existence " as it was." . . . 

304 



RECONSTRUCTION 305 

The future condition of the conquered power depends on 
the will of the conqueror. They must come in as new 
States or remain as conquered provinces. Congress . . . 
is the only power that can act in the matter. . . . 

Congress alone can do it. . . . Congress must create 
States and declare when they are entitled to be represented. 
Then each House must judge whether the members pre- 
senting themselves from a recognized State possess the 
requisite qualifications of age, residence and citizenship; 
and whether the election and returns are according to 
law. . . . 

It is obvious from all this that the first duty of Congress 
is to pass a law declaring the condition of these outside or 
defunct States, and providing proper civil governments for 
them. Since the conquest they have been governed by 
martial law. Military rule is necessarily despotic and 
ought not to exist longer than is absolutely necessary. As 
there are no symptoms that the people of these provinces 
will be prepared to participate in constitutional government 
for some years, I know of no arrangement so proper for 
them as territorial governments. There they can learn the 
principles of freedom and eat the fruit of foul rebellion. Un- 
der such governments, while electing members to the terri- 
torial Legislatures, they will necessarily mingle with those 
to whom Congress shall extend the right of suffrage. In 
Territories Congress fixes the qualifications of electors; 
and I know of no better place nor better occasion for the 
conquered rebels and the conqueror to practice justice to 
all men, and accustom themselves to make and to obey equal 
laws. . . . 

. . . They ought never to be recognized as capable of 
acting in the Union, or of being counted as valid States, 
until the Constitution shall have been so amended as to 
make it what its f ramers intended ; and so as to secure 
perpetual ascendency to the party of the Union; and so as 
to render our republican Government firm and stable for- 
ever. The first of those amendments is to change the basis 
21 



306 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

of representation among the States from Federal numbers 
to actual voters. . . . With the basis unchanged the eighty- 
three Southern members, with the Democrats that will in 
the best times be elected from the North, will always give 
a majority in Congress and in the Electoral College. ... I 
need not depict the ruin that would follow. . . . 

But this is not all that we ought to do before these invet- 
erate rebels are invited to participate in our legislation. 
We have turned, or are about to turn, loose four million 
slaves without a hut to shelter them or a cent in their 
pockets. The infernal laws of slavery have prevented 
them from acquiring an education, understanding the com- 
monest laws of contract, or of managing the ordinary busi- 
ness of life. This Congress is bound to provide for them 
until they can take care of themselves. If we do not fur- 
nish them with homesteads, and hedge them around with 
protective laws ; if we leave them to the legislation of their 
late masters, we had better have left them in bondage. . . . 
If we fail in this great duty now, when we have the power, 
we shall deserve and receive the execration of history and 
of all future ages. 

Congressional Globe, December i8, 1865, pp. 73-74, 39th 
Congress, ist Session. 

B 

Unless the rebel States, before admission, should be 
made republican in spirit, and placed under the guardian- 
ship of loyal men, all our blood and treasure will have been 
spent in vain. . . . Having these States . . . entirely 
within the power of Congress, it is our duty to take care 
that no injustice shall remain in their organic laws. Hold- 
ing them " like clay in the hands of the potter," we must 
see that no vessel is made for destruction. . . . There is 
more reason why colored voters should be admitted in the 
rebel States than in the Territories. In the States they 
form the great mass of the loyal men. Possibly with their 



RECONSTRUCTION 307 

aid loyal governments may be established in most of those 
States. Without it all are sure to be ruled by traitors ; and 
loyal men, black and white, will be oppressed, exiled, or 
murdered. There are several good reasons for the passage 
of this bill. In the first place, it is just. I am now con- 
fining my argument to negro suffrage in the rebel States. 
Have not loyal blacks quite as good a right to choose rulers 
and make laws as rebel whites ? In the second place, it is a 
necessity in order to protect the loyal white men in the 
seceded States. The white Union men are in a great mi- 
nority in each of those States. With them the blacks would 
act in a body ; and it is believed that in each of said States, 
except one, the two united would form a majority, control 
the States, and protect themselves. Now they are the vic- 
tims of daily murder. They must suffer constant perse- 
cution or be exiled. . . . 

Another good reason is, it would insure the ascendency 
of the Union party. Do you avow the party purpose? ex- 
claims some horror-stricken demagogue. I do. For I be- 
lieve, on my conscience, that on the continued ascend- 
ency of that party depends the safety of this great na- 
tion. If impartial suffrage is excluded in the rebel States, 
then everyone of them is sure to send a solid rebel repre- 
sentative delegation to Congress, and cast a solid rebel 
electoral vote. They, with their kindred Copperheads of 
the North, would always elect the President and control 
Congress. While slavery sat upon her defiant throne, and 
insulted and intimidated the trembling North, the South 
frequently divided on questions of policy between Whigs 
and Democrats, and gave victory alternately to the sections. 
Now, you must divide them between loyalists, without re- 
gard to color and disloyalists, or you will be the perpetual 
vassals of the free-trade, irritated, revengeful South. . . . 
I am for negro suffrage in every rebel State. If it be just, 
it should not be denied; if it be necessary, it should be 
adopted; if it be a punishment to traitors, they deserve 
it. 



3o8 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Congressional Globe, January 3, 1867, p. 252, 39th Con- 
gress, 26. Session. 

Questions 

What division of the government did Stevens think had the right 
to restore to statehood the States that had seceded? What was 
its immediate duty with respect to providing them with legal gov- 
ernments? What precautions should be taken to secure the liberty 
and rights of the negroes before the States were fully readmitted or 
allowed to take their legal place in the Union? Why did Stevens 
think that the negroes had a right to the franchise? How did he 
think their votes necessary to the safety of the Republican party? 



XLIX 
THE FREEDMAN'S BUREAU 

The Freedman's Bureau was created by Act of Congress, 
March 2, 1865, for one year; by later acts its life was continued 
to 1868. It was designed to be a sort of guardian to the newly 
freed negroes until they had grown sufficiently accustomed to 
freedom to be self-reliant; it was given powers sufficient to pre- 
vent any attempts to reenslave them or hold them in serfage, 
and to protect them from unfair discrimination by state laws. 
Two views of its activities are here given. The circular of 
advice may represent the benevolent motives that caused its 
creation ; the hostile report on its activity describe the abuses 
it was charged with where it was employed as a political ma- 
chine for the delivery of the negro vote. Doubtless there was 
wrong done and good done also; but the negro question could 
not be settled by the national government's placing men in 
charge of the freedmen as wards of the nation. 



II. By the proclamation of the President sanctioned by 
Congress the colored people are free. The result of the 
war, in which so many colored men have taken an honorable 
part, confirms their freedom. If in any place they are still 
held and treated as slaves, it is an outrage. To prevent 
such a wrong, and to secure to them protection, the Bureau 



RECONSTRUCTION 3^9 

of Freedmen has been established, and its officers placed 
throughout the district. All colored people have a right 
and are invited to go to these officers for advice and pro- 
tection whenever they think themselves wronged. The 
officers ask for the confidence of the colored people. 
Whenever the State laws and courts do not do justice to 
the colored man, by refusing the testimony of colored wit- 
nesses, or in any other way, the freed people must apply 
to the nearest officer of the Bureau ; he will tell what is to 
be done in each case. The freedmen must not attempt to 
take the law into their own hands, or to right themselves 
by any kind of violence, carrying of¥ property, or the like. 
White men will sometimes trespass upon a black man's 
rights or commit acts of personal violence, and then try to 
shield themselves under the plea that there is nothing but 
negro testimony against them. The officers of the Bureau 
have power to take up all such cases, and to admit the negro 
testimony, and the colored people must seek their remedy by 
going to these officers. . . . 

IV. They who have come out of slavery must exercise 
patience. No great change like that from slavery to free- 
dom can be made to w^ork perfectly at once. They must 
remember that they cannot have rights without duties. 
Freedom does not mean the right to live without w^ork at 
other people's expense, but means that each man shall en- 
joy the fair fruit of his labor. A man who can work has 
no right to a support by government or by charity. The 
issue of rations to colored people by the government dur- 
ing the war was an act of humanity, because they were 
driven from their work, forsaken by their old masters, and 
left w^ithout food. This is not the case now. The means 
and opportunity to make a respectable living are within the 
reach of every colored man in this State. No really re- 
spectable person wishes to be supported by others. . . . 

Yl. The freed people must have schools. If they are 
not educated they will be at constant disadvantage with 
white men. . . . But the government will not pay the 



310 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

teachers, and the benevolence of the North may not be 
able to support so many as will be needed. The colored 
people ought to aid. ... If they prefer it at any place, 
they might agree to be taxed according to their incomes, 
and take measures, in consultation with the officers of the 
bureau, to collect the tax themselves, and pay it over to the 
officers, who will use it for the schools and give account to 
all concerned. 

House Executive Documents No. yo, 39th Congress, ist 
Session, p. 154. 

B 

Even while the Federal Government was administering 
their affairs through direct agencies from Washington, they 
were oppressed and plundered by the Freedmen's Bureau 
agencies, by the cotton thieves, and the military, to an extent 
only exceeded by the carpet-bag local governments which 
superseded them.^ 

First, as to the Freedmen's Bureau and its operations. 
By this act, four millions of negroes became the pupils, 
wards, servitors, and pliant tools of a political and ex- 
tremely partisan agency, inimical and deadly hostile to the 
peace, order, and best interests of southern society. . . . 

. . . The agents of the Freedmen's Bureau were, as we 
have shown before, generally of a class of fanatics with- 
out character or responsibility, and were selected as fit 
instruments to execute the partisan and unconstitutional be- 
hests of a most unscrupulous head. Thus, the negroes 
were organized into secret political societies known as 
Loyal Leagues, in which organizations they were taught 
that their former owners were their worst enemies, and 
that to act with them, politically or religiously, would cer- 
tainly result in their re-enslavement. A regulation of this 
Bureau required all agreements for service between whites 

1 These charges against the Bureau were made by the minority of 
a congressional committee. 



RECONSTRUCTION 31 1 

and blacks to be signed and witnessed in the presence of, 
and left in the custody of, the agent. It was a common 
practice, after a planter or farmer had contracted in the 
required form with the f reedmen for the year, had his crops 
planted and in process of cultivation, that his negro la- 
borers would strike for higher wages. Nothing but the 
intervention of the Bureau agent could induce them to re- 
turn, and that inducement could only be effected by the 
planter or farmer paying to the agent from ten to twenty 
dollars per head. This sum was simply a perquisite of 
the agent, and when paid, the negro always returned to his 
labors, though not receiving a cent of additional compensa- 
tion. . . . These Bureau agents had authority to order the 
arrest and imprisonment of any citizen on the single state- 
ment of any vicious negro ; and if any resistance was made 
to the mandates of the Bureau agent, the post command- 
ant, or military governor, was always ready to enforce it 
with a file of bayonets. . . . 

Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, Vol. I, pp. 
441-2, 42d Congress, 2d Session, Senate Report 41, 
Part I. 

Questions 

What part was the Bureau designed to take in securing the freed- 

men, against attempts to re-enslave them? How could it protect 
freedmen against unjust State laws? How did it seek to impress on 
the negroes the necessity of their working like freemen, and seek- 
ing themselves to advance their race? What, according to the 
charges of the minority report, was the part of Bureau officials in 
organizing Loyal Leagues ? How did its officials extort money from 
planters ? 



312 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 



SOUTHERN GOVERNMENT UNDER RECON- 
STRUCTION 



ELECTION TO THE ALABAMA CONVENTION OF 1868 

Their election was the most ridiculous farce ever beheld. 
I wish you could have seen the poor ignorant blacks giving 
in their " bits of paper," as they called their printed ballots, 
when they knew no more of the names on them, who they 
were, what they were, than you did at the same time in 
your far-off home. ... In all the elections ever held in 
the L'nited States, there has not been so much fraud com- 
mitted as there was in this one (1867). The negroes think 
they have been greatly wronged because they have not been 
paid for voting. . . . 

. . . Every office, from governor to constable, from the 
chief justice of the Supreme Court to the magistrate of a 
county beat, is made elective and placed at the disposal of 
the blacks, not one in five hundred of whom can either read 
or write, and who know no more of what they are doing, 
when they vote, than would a hog or mule know, if those 
brutes had the privilege of voting. . . . 

Affairs in the Late hisurrectionary States, " Alabama 
Testimony," Vol. Ill, p. 1832. Letter of Samuel A. Hale. 
Senate Reports, 426. Congress, 2d Session, 1871-1872. 

B 

PAINTED PEGS 

I can tell you from what I know and have seen myself 
and also from what negroes have told me, that they have 
been promised lands and mules — forty acres of land and 



RECONSTRUCTION 313 

a mule — on divers occasions. ]\Iany an old negro has 
come to me and asked me about that thing. I can illustrate 
it by one little thing that I saw on a visit once to Gaines- 
ville, Sumter County [Alabama]. At a barbecue there I 
saw a man who was making a speech to the negroes, tell- 
ing them what good he had done for them ; that he had been 
to Washington City and had procured from one of the De- 
partments here certain pegs. I saw the pegs. He had about 
two dozen on his arm ; they were painted red and blue. He 
said that those pegs he had obtained from here at a great 
expense to himself ; that they had been made by the gov- 
ernment for the purpose of staking out the negroes' forty 
acres. He told the negroes that all he wanted was to have 
the expenses paid to him, which was about a dollar a peg. 
He told them that they could stick one peg down at a cor- 
ner, then walk so far one way and stick another down, 
till they had got the four pegs down ; and that, when the 
four pegs wxre down, the negroes' forty acres would be 
included in that area ; and all he had to say to them was, 
that they could stick those pegs anywhere they pleased — 
on anybody's land they wanted to, but not to interfere 
with each other ; and he would advise them, in selecting the 
forty acres, to take half woodland and half clear; that no- 
body would dare to interfere with those pegs. 

Affairs in the Late Insurrectionary States, " Alabama 
Testimony," p. 314. Statement of John G. Pierce. Sen- 
ate Reports, 426. Congress, 26. Session, 1871-1872. 

C 

A NEGRO LEGISLATURE 

A description of the South Carolina Legislature in days when 
the old white leaders were disfranchised by the Reconstruction 
acts, and the negro vote was manipulated by corrupt politicians. 
The account of this travesty on a legislative body needs no com- 
ment. James S. Pike (1811-1882) was a newspaper man who 
before the war had been a pronounced anti-slavery partisan. 



314 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Such a picture, as this here given, accounts in part for continu- 
ing opposition among southern whites against negro participa- 
tion in politics. It should in all fairness be said, however, that 
even the negro and carpet-bag governments did some good 
things, such as establishing the public school system. 

. . . We will enter the House of Representatives. Here 
sit one hundred and twenty-four members. Of these, 
twenty-three are white men, representing the remains of 
the old civilization. These are good-looking, substantial 
citizens. . . . There they sit, grim and silent. They feel 
themselves to be but loose stones, thrown in to partially ob- 
struct a current they are powerless to resist. . . . 

This dense negro crowd ... do the debating, the squab- 
bling, the law-making, and create all the clamor and dis- 
order of the body. . . . 

The Speaker is black, the clerk is black, the door-keepers 
are black, the little pages are black, the chairman of the 
Ways and Means is black, and the chaplain is coal black. 
At some of the desks sit colored men whose types it would 
be hard to find outside of Congo ; whose costume, visages, 
attitudes, and expression, only befit the forecastle of a 
buccaneer. It must be remembered, also, that these men, 
with not more than a half dozen exceptions, have been 
themselves, slaves, and that their ancestors were slaves for 
generations. 

- . . No one is allowed to talk five minutes without in- 
terruption, and the one interruption is a signal for another 
and another, until the original speaker is smothered un- 
der an avalanche of them. Forty questions of privilege 
will be raised in a day. At times, nothing goes on but alter- 
nating questions of order and of privilege. The inefficient 
colored friend who sits in the Speaker's chair cannot sup- 
press this extraordinary element of the debate. Some of 
the blackest members exhibit a pertinacity of intrusion in 
raising these points of order and questions of privilege that 
few white men can equal. Their struggles to get the floor, 
their bellowings, and physical contortions, baffle descrip- 



RECONSTRUCTION 315 

tion. The Speaker's hammer plays a perpetual tattoo all 
to no purpose. The talking and the interruptions from 
all quarters go on with the utmost license. Everyone 
esteems himself as good as his neighbor, and puts in his 
oar, apparently as often for love of riot and confusion as 
for anything else. . . . The Speaker orders a member 
whom he has discovered to be particularly unruly to take 
his seat. The member obeys, and with the same motion 
that he sits down, throws his feet on to his desk, hiding 
himself from the Speaker by the soles of his boots. . . . 
After a few experiences of this sort, the Speaker threatens, 
in a laugh, to call " the gemman " to order. This is con- 
sidered a capital joke, and a guffaw follows. The laugh 
goes round and then the peanuts are cracked and munched 
faster than ever; one hand being employed in fortifying 
the inner man with this nutriment of universal use, while 
the other enforces the views of the orator. . . . 

But underneath all this shocking burlesque upon legisla- 
tive proceedings, we must not forget that there is something 
very real to this uncouth and untutored multitude. It is 
not all sham, nor all burlesque. They have a genuine in- 
terest and a genuine earnestness in the business of the 
assembly which we are bound to recognize and respect, 
unless we would be accounted shallow critics. . . . The 
whole thing is a wonderful novelty to them as well as 
to observers. Seven years ago these men were raising 
corn and cotton under the whip of the overseer. To-day 
they are raising points of order and questions of privilege. 
They find they can raise one as well as the other. They 
prefer the latter. It is easier, and better paid. Then, it is 
the evidence of an accomplished result. It means escape 
and defense from old oppressors. It means liberty. It 
means the destruction of prison walls only too real to them. 
It is the sunshine of their lives. It is their day of jubilee. 
It is their long promised vision of the Lord God Almighty. 

J. S. Pike: The Prostrate State, pp. 12-21, passim. D. 
Appleton and Co., New York, 1874. 



3l6 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 



LI 

A SPECIMEN OF THE CARPET-BAGGER AND 
HIS MISGOVERNMENT 

The Northern Reconstruction policy prevented old Southern 
leaders from taking part in political affairs ; a large part of the 
white population were prevented from voting or holding of- 
fice. In consequence the government in a number of the States 
was thrown into the hands of the negroes and of a com- 
paratively few unscrupulous white men, many of whom were 
Northerners desiring to profit by the unsettled conditions. This 
account of Warmoth's career is taken from a Congressional 
report. The account of the depth of his misrule in Louisiana 
in the one department of finance is taken from Why the Solid 
Soiithf an arraignment of the Republican Reconstruction policy 
and its results by prominent Southern politicians. It of course 
presents only one side of the case; but it probably presents that 
side correctly. There were some Northerners in the South who 
were not there simply for booty. 

A 

GOVERNOR WARMOTH OF LOUISIANA 

He is a native of Illinois ; entered the Army from 
Missouri a democrat; had trouble w^ith General Grant 
after the battle of Vicksburgh ; was charged with circulat- 
ing exaggerated reports of the Union losses there; was 
dismissed the service by Grant, and was restored to his 
command by President Lincoln, his dismissal having been 
unjust, and procured through questionable motives. He 
retired from the army in 1865; went to Texas; was in- 
dicted there for embezzlement and appropriating Govern- 
ment cotton. Carter acted as his attorney; but when the 
case was called no prosecutor appeared, and the prosecu- 
tion was abandoned. He returned to New Orleans, and 
before the reconstruction of Louisiana he was elected a 



RECONSTRUCTION 317 

delegate to Congress, each voter depositing with his ballot 
Hfty cents to defray Warmoth's expenses to Washington. 
He had been governor four years, at an annual salary of 
$8,000, and he testifies he made far more than $100,000 the 
first year, and he is now estimated to be worth from $500,- 
000 to $1,000,000. . . . 

House Report No. 92, 42d Congress, 2d Session, p. 24. 
1872. 

B 

The annual expenditure of the Warmoth government, 
during the four years and five months it was in power, 
was as follows, not including the increase made in the 
state debt: 

1868, from July $3.837377-74 

1869 4,294,677.16 

1870 7,131,202.11 

1871 6,425,831.50 

1872 . . . .• 4,704,983.65 



Total for four years and five mos .... $26,394,572.16 

Soon after coming into office Governor Warmoth called 
attention to the state debt, and to the facility with which 
it could be increased. In his message to the Legislature, 
January 4, 1868, he said: "The total bonded debt, ex- 
clusive of bonds owned by the state, is $6,771,300, and this 
sum is further reducible by $871,000. The floating debt is 
$1,929,500; and it is expected that enough can be realized 
from the special one per cent, tax to discharge the entire 
floating debt, and leave a surplus of $500,000." " Our debt 
is smaller than that of almost any state in the Union," con- 
tinued Warmoth, significantly; "with a tax- roll of $251,- 
000,000, and a bonded debt that can at will be reduced to 
$6,000,000, there is no reason that our credit should not 
be at par.". . . 



3i8 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Under Warmoth, the Republicans had added to the 
State and city indebtedness of Louisiana $54,325,75*9, with 
nothing whatever to show for it. The cost of these four 
years and five months of misrule was, therefore: 

Money actually expended by state $26,394,572 

By local bodies (partly estimated) 25,300,000 

Increase in debt (state and local) 54»325.759 

Total cost 4 yr's and 5 mo's RepubHcan 

misrule, $106,020,331 

Amounting per year to 24,040,089 

In a little over four years the Republican party had 
spent nearly as much in amount as half the wealth of the 
state. Of the bonds issued, a large part bore interest at 
eight per cent. 

Such profligacy necessarily required a heavy rate of 
taxation. The state tax in 1867, just previous to War- 
moth's election, was 3^ mills ; in 1869 it was raised to 
5^ ; in 1870 to 7>^ ; in 1871 to 141^, and in 1872 to 211/ 
mills, at which figure it remained for some years. The 
taxation in New Orleans which had been 15 mills previous 
to the election of Warmoth, became 23^ mills in 1869; 
26y^ mills in 1870; 2y}^ mills in 1871 ; and finally 30 mills, 
or 3 per cent., in 1873. Some of the country parishes 
fared even worse, and in one case (that of Natchitoches) 
the taxation reached 7.9 per cent. — much more than the 
average interest on capital invested, or the productive power 
of property. 

But, great as is this total of $106,020,337 spent by War- 
moth and his followers, it does not represent all the deple- 
tion Louisiana then suffered. To it must be added the 
privileges and franchises given away to favorites, and the 
state property stolen. To one company was given all the 
swamp lands in the vicinity of New Orleans ; to another 
rights and franchises on the levee, or river front, of New 
Orleans, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. And, as 



RECONSTRUCTION 319 

if this were not enough, the school fund of the several 
parishes, resulting from the appropriations and land dona- 
tions made by the State and Federal Governments, were 
plundered. In his report for 1873, State Superintendent 
of Education W. F. Brown, a Republican and a colored 
man, called attention to some of these thefts, as follows : 
Stolen in Carroll Parish, in 1871, $30,000; in East Baton 
Rouge, $5,032; in St. Landry, $5,700; in St. Martin, $3,- 
786.80; in Plaquemines, $5,855; besides large amounts in 
St. Tammany, Concordia, Morehouse, and other parishes. 
The entire permanent school fund of the parishes disap- 
peared during this period. 

The state had at the time of Warmoth's inauguration a 
trust fund of $1,300,500, for the benefit of the free public 
schools. The bonds which represented this fund — the 
most sacred in the custody of the state — were sold at pub- 
lic auction in June, 1872, for $1,096,956.25 and the proceeds 
instead of being given to the schools, were set aside to pay 
the warrants which had been issued by Warmoth for 
purposes foreign to the legitimate public use, and held by a 
ring of jobbers and brokers who had bought them at a 
heavy discount. 

H. A. Herbert and others: Why the Solid South f, p. 
403. R. H. Woodward and Co., Baltimore, 1890. 

Questions 

What had been Warmoth's career before he became a Southern 
politician ? Sketch his political career in Louisiana. How much 
was it estimated that he had made out of politics in Louisiana ? What 
addition was made to the State debt of Louisiana In Warmoth's 
time? How great an increase in the rate of taxation did this cause? 
What State property was embezzled by the State and local govern- 
ments in Warmoth's administration? 



320 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

LII 

SOCIAL CONDITIONS DURING RECON- 
STRUCTION 

When once the Republican party was associated, in the minds 
of Southern white men, with negro domination or even gen- 
eral negro suffrage, there was no hope that any large number 
of them would join the Republican party or work for its suc- 
cess. Possibly, had the party taken another position, had the 
whole course of Reconstruction been different, the poorer whites 
might have joined the Republicans and acted with them against 
the surviving elements of the old ante-bellum aristocracy. As 
to this no one can speak positively; but the white people, 
whether they belonged to the whole slave-holding class or not. 
were not ready to act with a party which recognized the negro 
even politically as the equal of the white man. 

The Southern white population differs from ours in one 
or two important respects. . . . There is a more marked 
distinction between the wealthy and the poor than is 
commonly found in the North. The numerous class of 
poor white farmers are a kind of people unknown among 
us. Settled upon a thin and infertile soil; long and con- 
stantly neglected before the war ; living still in a backwoods 
country, and in true backwoods style, without schools, with 
few churches, and given to the rude sports and a rude agri- 
culture, they are a peculiar people. They have more good 
qualities than their wealthier neighbors, the planters, al- 
ways allow them; but they are ignorant, easily prejudiced, 
and they have, since the war, lived in a dread of having 
social equality with the negro imposed upon them. This 
fear has bred hatred of the blacks, which has often, in 
former years, found expression in brutal acts, to which, 
I believe, in the majority of cases, they were instigated by 
bad men of a class above them. . . . 

In the North we have heard so much about murders that 
I was very glad to get hold here [in Louisiana] of some 



RECONSTRUCTION 3^1 

parish statistics on this subject. The State government, 
which has ahiiost entirely neglected to punish murderers — 
being too busily engaged in stealing — has, of course, no 
official returns of crimes as it ought to possess. I have 
been able to obtain returns of crimes, chiefly made by the 
county clerks and coroners, from only 13 parishes. . ... 
From 1868 to 1875 there have been in these 13 parishes 
313 murders. Of these, 93 were of whites by whites, 
143 were of colored by colored, 28 were of whites by 
colored, 32 colored by whites, 3 colored by officers of 
justice, 5 colored by persons unknown, 7 whites by persons 
unknown, 5 whites by mobs, and 5 colored by mobs. 

The State has 57 parishes. Most of the 13 of which I 
have given returns have a population nearly equally di- 
vided between white and black, and I suspect the figures 
give more than an average number of murders of whites by 
whites, and less than the average number of murders of 
blacks by blacks. . . . 

Life is not held sacred, as it is in the North. Everybody 
goes armed, and every trifling dispute is ended with the 
pistol. Nearly all the disorder and crime is caused by 
the lower order of whites and by negroes; for these latter 
have, it seems, generally taken up the habit of carrying 
arms, and in their quarrels among themselves use their 
pistol or knife freely. The respectable people of the State 
[Mississippi] do not discourage the practice of carrying 
arms as they should ; they are astonishingly tolerant of acts 
which would arouse a Northern community to the ut- 
most, and I believe that to this may be ascribed all that is 
bad in Mississippi — to an almost total lack of a right pub- 
lic opinion. 

The Republican party of North Carolina is composed of 
the great body of the negroes, and of a large mass of the 
poor whites in the western or mountain districts. But 
these small white farmers dislike the negro, whom they 
know little about, and are easily alarmed at the thought of 
social equality with him. The Democratic politicians very 
22 



Z22 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

naturally worked upon their fears on this point, and thus 
found their best argument put into their hands by those 
Republican leaders in the North who insisted upon this 
measure. [The Civil Rights Bill.] 

Charles Nordhoff : The Cotton States in the Spring and 
Slimmer of iSy^, pp. 17-18, 55, 78, 96. D. Appleton and 
Co., New York, 1876. 

Questions 

What social distinctions were there in the South between the 
planters and the small farmers ? Can you find in an earlier selection 
in this book how this difference originated before the war? What 
had caused the enmity of the poor white class toward the blacks? 
How far did this find expression in acts of violence? How was 
the Civil Rights Bill used by the Democrats to bring the poor whites 
of North Carolina into the Democratic party? Has the Republican 
party carried Southern States since Reconstruction times? How did 
the Southern States vote in 1912? 



LIII 

THE SOUTHERN NEGRO AFTER 
EMANCIPATION 

. . . What the planters are disposed to complain of is 
that, while they have lost their slaves, they have not got 
free laborers in any sense common either in the North- 
ern States or in Europe; and, looking around here at 
Jonesboro, [Alabama, Tennessee Valley], after a calm and 
wide survey, one cannot but think that the New England 
manufacturer and the Old England farmer must be equally 
astonished at a recital of the relations of land, capital, and 
labor as they exist on the cotton plantations of the South- 
ern States. The wage of the negroes, if such a term can be 
applied to a mode of remuneration so unusual and anoma- 
lous, consist, ... of one-half the crop of corn and cotton, 
the only crops in reality produced. . . . The negro, on 
the semi-communistic basis thus established, finds his own 



RECONSTRUCTION 323 

rations ; but as these are supplied to him by the planter, or 
by the planter's notes of credit on the merchants . . . and 
as much more sometimes as he thinks he needs by the 
merchants on his own credit, from the ist of January on- 
ward through the year, in anticipation of crops which are 
not marketable till the end of December, he can lose nothing 
by the failure or deficient outcome of the crops, and is al- 
ways sure of his subsistence. . . . But this is only a part of 
the " privileges " (a much more accurate term than 
*' wages") of the negro field-hand. In addition to half of 
the crops, he has a free cottage of the kind he seems to 
like, and the windows of which he or his wife persistently 
nail up ; he has abundance of wood from the planter's 
estate for fuel, and for building his corncribs and other 
outhouses, with teams to draw it from the forest; he is 
allowed to keep hogs, and milch cows, and young cattle, 
which roam and feed with the same right of pasture as 
the hogs and cattle of the planter, free of all charge; he 
has the same right of hunting and shooting, with quite as 
many facilities for exercising the right as anybody else — 
and he has his dogs and guns, though, as far as I have dis- 
covered, he provides himself with these by purchase or 
some other form of conquest. Though entitled to one- 
half the crops, yet he is not required to contribute any por- 
tion of the seed, nor is he called upon to pay any part of 
the taxes on the plantation. The only direct tax on the 
negro is a poll-tax, which is wholly set apart for the educa- 
tion of his children, and which I find to be everywhere in 
arrear, and in some places in a hopeless chaos of non-pay- 
ment. . . . 

The negro field-hand, with his right of half-crop and 
privileges as described, who works with ordinary diligence, 
looking only to his own pocket, and gets his crops forward 
and gathered in due time, is at liberty to go to other planta- 
tions to pick cotton, in doing which he may make from 
two to two and a half dollars a day. For every piece of 
work outside the crop he does even on his own plantation 



324 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

he must be paid a dollar a day. It may be clearing ditches, 
or splitting rails, or anything that is just as essential to 
the crops as the two-inch plowing and hoeing in which he 
shambles away his time, but for all this kind of work he 
must be paid a dollar a day. . . . Yet the negroes, with 
all their superabounding privilege on the cotton field make 
little of it. A plowman or a herd in the old country would 
not exchange his lot for theirs, as it stands and as it ap- 
pears in all external circumstances. They are almost all 
in debt ; few are able at the end of the year to square ac- 
counts with " the merchant " ; and it is rarely the planter 
can point with pride, and with the conscious joy of record- 
ing his own profit, to a freedman who, as a result of the 
year's toil, will have a hundred or two of dollars to the good. 
The soul is often crushed out of labor by penury and op- 
pression. Here a soul cannot begin to be infused into it 
through the sheer excess of privilege and license with 
which it is surrounded. 

Robert Somers : The Southern States Since the War, 
p. 128-9. New York, 1871. 

Questions 

Describe the system of farming on shares in use after emancipa- 
tion. Why did it relieve the negro of all worry about his livelihood 
without requiring him to work? Could the negro be trusted to 
look after the upkeep of the land that he farmed on shares? For 
what work on such land must he be paid? What was the economic 
condition of most of the negroes employed in this way? The system 
of farming on shares still obtains as a very common practice. At 
the time, the " renter " who paid his rent in produce was almost as 
numerous as the "halfer" described in this selection. 



LIV 

THE KU KLUX KLAN 

The Ku Klux Klan was one of those ephemeral secret orders 
that swiftly sweep into their membership a large portion of a 



RECONSTRUCTION 325 

community or a whole class and then as quickly subside. South- 
erners made use of its name at a critical moment to cover the 
exertions they were then making to keep the negroes in or- 
der, and to counteract the activity of the carpet-baggers and 
the freedmen who followed them. The Klan's organization was 
loose and its methods differed from one locality to another in 
response to local needs and the character of the men who 
chanced to be in control of its operations. They ranged from 
acts of violence to comical practicings on the superstition of the 
negroes. Undoubtedly its name and methods were employed to 
cloak many of the crimes of violence with which the organiza- 
tion and members of the Klan proper had no connection. 



KU KLUX COSTUME (NORTH CAROLINA) 

The costume is a long gown with loose flowing sleeves, 
with a hood, in wdiich the apertures for the eyes, nose and 
mouth are trimmed with some red material. The hood has 
three horns, made out of some cotton-stufif, in shape some- 
thing like candy bags, and stuffed, and wrapped with red 
strings, the horns standing out on the front and the sides 
of the hood. When a costume is worn by a person he is 
completely disguised by it. He does not speak in his 
natural tone of voice, and uses a mystical style of language, 
and is armed with a revolver, a knife, or a stick. In some 
instances where they have ridden through neighborhoods 
they have disguised their horses so that even they should 
not be recognized. ... It is a large loose gown, covering 
the w^hole person quite closely, buttoned close around and 
reaching from the head clear down to the floor, covering 
the feet and dragging on the ground. It is made of 
bleached linen, starched and ironed, and in the night, by 
moonlight, it glitters and rattles. Then there is a hood 
with holes cut in for eyes, and a nose, six or eight inches 
long, made of cotton cloth, stuffed with cotton, and lapped 
with red braid half an inch wade. The eyes are lined with 
the braid, and the eyebrows are made of the same. The 
cloth is lined with red flannel. Then there is a long tongue 



326 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

sticking out about six inches, made of red flannel also, and 
so fixed that it can be moved about by the man's tongue. 
Then in the mouth are large teeth that are very frightful. 
Then under the tongue is a leather bag placed inside, so 
that when the man calls for water he pours it inside the 
bag and not into his mouth at all. 

Senate Reports No. i, p. 2. 42d Congress, ist Session, 
1871. 



PART X 

THE CATTLE INDUSTRY AND AGRICULTURE 
SINCE THE WAR 

LV 
CATTLE DAYS IN THE WEST 

The two extracts below represent two past phases of the cattle 
industry of the United States, — the driving of great herds from 
Texas to the railroads in Kansas, and the cattle ranches of the 
Plains of a decade later. The advance of farming communities 
has appropriated the land to the plow, or the enclosed pasture 
has taken the place of the boundless grazing lands; thus the 
grazing industry is to-day organized on far different lines. 
Professor Turner has said that, in the settlement of the United 
States, the fur trader always first invaded the wilderness. After 
him came the grazier with his herds of cattle, only to be dis- 
placed in his turn by the pioneer farmer. The second stage of 
development of the Great Plains has passed away in large meas- 
ure in our own generation, though there are still great grazing 
ranches in the West for both cattle and sheep. As the rough 
and ready life of the early West contrasted sharply with the 
methods of life in the older settled States, the romance of the 
cowboy and the cattle days has been a favorite theme for writers 
of thrilling tales of adventure. 



In i860, Texas, as it had been for many years before, was 
the chief producer of live stock in the Western States. . . . 
The peculiarly favorable climate of Texas gave the State 
almost a monopoly of the business. The pastures were 
green the year around, and the proximity to market, either 
at points on the Mississippi River, to which herds from the 

327 



328 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

eastern part of the State could easily be driven, or by 
water from points on the Gulf, gave a distinct ad- 
vantage. . . . 

The outbreak of the war brought upon the ranch-owners 
a peculiar embarrassment of riches. With the Northern 
market cut off, and Southern business life demoralized, no 
disposition could be made of the rapidly increasing herds. 
Occasional fugitive sales along the Mississippi became al- 
most the only markets, ... In 1865 and 1866 the ranch- 
owners determined to seek Northern markets at any cost, 
and thousands of animals were massed in the northeast 
portion of the State preparatory to driving to Missouri 
railroad stations. . . . The solution of the problem con- 
fronting the cattle-raisers came through the construction of 
the railroads across Kansas. In 1867, the old Kansas 
Pacific Railroad, now the Kansas Division of the Union 
Pacific, was being built from Kansas City along the valley 
of the Kaw due west across the State. . . . Arrangements 
were made for the location of the proper yards at Abilene, 
a station one hundred and sixty-five miles from Kansas 
City, situated in the midst of a richly-grassed prairie sec- 
tion, admirably adapted for grazing grounds of incoming 
herds. The town had less than a dozen houses, and was 
within less than thirty miles of the end of the road, as 
then completed. Yards wxre built and steps were taken 
to induce the cattle men to make this a point from which 
to ship their herds. . . . 

. . . 1868 saw a general friendliness toward the new 
movement among Texas stock-owners, and a northward 
drive that exceeded seventy-five thousand head. But the 
succeeding year, 1869, saw a greater increase, and one hun- 
dred and sixty thousand cattle came tramping up like a 
horned army from the ranches of the South. 

By this time well-defined trails had been located, and for 
two decades those trunk-lines connecting the great produc- 
ing and consuming points held their supremacy. The most 
famous of these was the " Chisholm Trail." . . . From two 



THE CATTLE INDUSTRY 329 

hundred to four hundred yards wide, beaten into the bare 
earth, it reached over hill and through valley for over six 
hundred miles (including its southern extension) a choco- 
late band between the green prairies, uniting the North and 
South. As the marching hoofs wore it down, and the 
winds blew and the waters washed the earth away, it be- 
came lower than the surrounding country and was flanked 
by little banks of sand, drifted there by the wind. Bleach- 
ing skulls and skeletons of weary brutes who had perished 
on the journey gleamed along its borders, and here and 
there was a low mound, showing where some cowboy had 
literally " died with his boots on." Occasionally a dilapi- 
dated wagon-frame told of a break-down, and spotting the 
emerald reaches on either side were the barren circle-like 
" bedding grounds," each a record that a great herd had 
there spent a night. 

The wealth of an empire passed over the trail, leaving 
its mark for decades to come. The traveller of to-day sees 
the wide trough-like course, with ridges^ being washed 
down by the rains, and with fences and farms of the set- 
tlers and the more civilized red-men intercepting its track, 
and forgets the wild and arduous life of which it was the 
exponent. It was a life now outgrown, and which will 
never again be possible. ... In 1871 nearly a million cattle 
were driven north. . . . But it was the height of the 
wave. ... At the beginning of winter (1871-1872) came 
a storm of sleet, putting an icy coat over the sod; and 
multiplied thousands of cattle and hundreds of horses died 
of cold and starvation. . . . Abilene's prestige was gone. 
Ellsworth, forty miles farther west, became the shipping 
point on the Kansas Pacific. . . . Newton, where the road 
crossed the trail to Abilene, stopped many of the herds, 
and with Ellsworth divided the claim to the title Abilene had 
held for several years, " The wickedest town in the West." 
... It was of the new shipping point that another pictur- 
esque saying became popular, '' There is no Sunday west 
of Newton, and no God west of Pueblo." . . . Soon after. 



330 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Dodge City, on the Chisholm trail's western offshoot to 
Ellsworth, being reached by the Santa Fe, took the more 
northern station's trade as Newton had absorbed Abilene's, 
and for twelve years was the acknowledged shipping center 
for Texas cattle in the State. . . . 

. . . The season of i"89i saw the last of the bovine ex- 
odus that through more than two decades had furnished 
employment and profit for a large portion of the West's 
workers. Neither advantage nor convenience is now found 
in that method of marketing, and henceforth the only herds 
to wind their slow length over the once populous thorough- 
fares will be the young stock taken leisurely through the 
season from the warm climate of the Gulf region up north- 
westerly, skirting the foot-hills of the Rockies, to reach, 
after a six months' journey, the highland feeding grounds 
of Wyoming and Montana. A year or two later, they will 
go to market, sturdy and hard-fleshed beeves, ready for 
the export trade. 

. . . Spring was the usual starting time, and during 
the seasons of the large drives. May, June, July and August 
saw almost a solid procession passing over the great trails. 
... A herd of a thousand beeves would string out to a 
length of two miles, and a larger one still longer. It made 
a picturesque sight. The leaders were flanked by cowboys 
on wiry Texas ponies, riding at ease in great saddles with 
high backs and pommels. At regular distances were other 
riders, and the progress of the cavalcade was not unlike 
that of an army on a march. 

... At the start there was hard driving, twenty to 
thirty miles a day, until the animals were thoroughly 
wearied. After that twelve to fifteen miles was considered 
a good day's drive, thus extending the journey over forty 
or one hundred days. The daily programme was as regu- 
lar as that of a regiment on the march. From morning 
until noon the cattle were allowed to graze in the direction 
of their destination, watched by the cowboys in relays. 
The cattle by this time were uneasy and were turned into 



THE CATTLE INDUSTRY 33 1 

the trail and walked steadily forward eight or ten miles, 
when, at early twilight they were halted for another graze. 
As darkness came on they were gathered closer and closer 
into a compact mass by the cowboys riding steadily in con- 
stantly lessening circles around them, until at last the 
brutes lay down, chewing their cuds and resting from the 
day's trip. . . . 

No one could tell what caused a stampede, any more 
than one can tell the reason of the strange panics that 
attack human gatherings at times. A flash of lightning, 
a crackling stick, a wolf's howl, little things in themselves, 
but in a moment every horned head was lifted, and the 
mass of hair and horns, with fierce, frightened eyes gleam- 
ing like thousands of emeralds, was off. Recklessly, 
blindly, in whatever direction fancy led them, they went, 
over a bluff or into a morass, it mattered not, and fleet 
were the horses that could keep abreast of the leaders. . . . 

Another danger was that of the mingling of two herds; 
while in the earlier days the presence of the buffalo was 
a decided peril. A herd of buffalo roaring and tearing its 
way across the plain was almost certain to cause a panic, 
if within hearing, and outriders were necessary to watch 
for these enemies, and turn their course from the trail. 
Besides marauding Indians were always to be feared, and 
many a skirmish was had between the cowboys and the 
redskins. . . . 

Reaching the outskirts of the shipping station, the herd 
was held on the plains until the drover effected a sale or 
secured cars for shipment. Then the animals were driven 
into the stockades, dragged or coaxed into the cars, and 
were sent off to meet their fate in the great packing- 
houses. . . . 

Much glamour and romance have been thrown around 
the figure of the cowboy. He was not the dashing and 
chivalric figure of the burlesque stage, in gorgeous som- 
brero and sash, nor was he the drunken, fighting terror of 
the dime novel. He was a very average Westerner, dressed 



332 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

for comfort, and with the traits of character that his busi- 
ness induced. The cowboy Hved a hard Hfe. For months 
he never saw a bed nor slept beneath a roof. He seldom 
had access to a newspaper or book, and had none of 
society's advantages to lift him to higher things. The 
roughest of the West's immigrants, as well as many Mexi- 
cans, drifted into the business because of its excitement 
and good wages, and this class by its excesses gave the 
world its standard for all. . . . 

The cowboy with his white, wide-rimmed hat, his long 
leathern cattle whip, his lariat, and his clanking spur is a 
thing of the past. The great Texas ranches are enclosed 
with barbed wire fences, and a genuine Texas steer would 
attract almost as much attention in the old cattle towns as 
a llama. Abilene, Ellsworth, Newton, and Dodge City are 
busy little cities surrounded by rich farming communities 
and with churches, schools, electric lights, and other evi- 
dences of modern civilization. Xo trace of the old life 
remains, except some weather-stained and dilapidated 
buildings, pointed out to the stranger as having been saloons 
where Wild Tom, Texas Sam, or other strangely named 
characters, killed men unnumbered '' during the cattle 
days.'' But even these traditions are known to but few 
of the modern inhabitants, so entirely has a new people 
filled the land during the last decade. 

C, M. Harger: Cattle Trails of the Prairies, in Scrib- 
ner's Magazin-e, Vol. XI, pp. 732-742. 1892. 



B 

To Old World ears it sounds not only strange but hardly 
credible, that you or I can to-day start for any of the three 
or four last named territories [Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, 
and New Mexico], pick out for our stock a good range for 
grazing, as yet unoccupied, drive onto it a herd of ten thou- 
sand cattle, select a suitable spot near to a convenient 



THE CATTLE INDUSTRY 333 

creek, and there build our ranche or farmhouse, fence in 
fifty or a hundred acres for hayland, and, in fact, make 
ourselves entirely at home, disporting ourselves as virtual 
owners of the land, without paying one penny for it, or 
outstepping any territorial or United States statute, or 
doing what is not perfectly lawful. There is no trouble 
about title, deeds, surveyors and lawyers; possession is 
nine points of the law, and the tenth is that ever-present 
law-maker and law-breaker, the Colt revolver; for, unlike 
the miner, who says the tenth point is a bribe, the absence 
of all tribunals to decide disputes about land in these far- 
oflf, semi-wild regions, makes the revolver take the place of 
the less bloodthirsty bribe, in defending vi et armis, what 
you deem your own. Very naturally this state of things, 
existing only in so called *' unsurveyed " districts, can only 
continue as long as the supply of vast plain lands available 
for grazing purposes last. Huge as Uncle Sam's posses- 
sions available for cattle ranges are, they are nevertheless 
approaching exhaustion. . . . The whole United States 
land must for this purpose be divided into two categories 
— the surveyed and the unsurveyed. ... To the " unsur- 
veyed " broadly speaking, Montana, Wyoming, parts of 
Idaho, Oregon, New Mexico and Arizona [belong] ; the 
latter, on account of its sterile soil, of little value for stock 
raising. Here ownership rests with the first comer, until 
at a future period the territory is surveyed by Government 
officials, and the land mapped out and divided into districts, 
each coming under a Government district official. Those 
that have *' located " previous to this period are left in un- 
disputed possession, provided they have improved the land ; 
that is, either cultivated it, fenced it in, or, as would be in 
the case of stock-raisers, have cattle of their own grazing 
on it. A nominal fee secures to the settler a Government 
title. . . . 

If we examine the natural features of the Great Plains, 
we find that with very few exceptions no part of them 
will feed as many cattle, sheep, or horses to the square 



334 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

mile as lands in the Eastern States or in Europe would; 
but the almost limitless area counterbalances this. The 
grasses of the Plains, of which the " gamma " and " buf- 
falo " are the commonest, contain highly nutritious quali- 
ties. The former grows about six inches high, and has a 
single round stock with oblong heads ; the other grows 
closer to the ground. The bunch grass, another kind, 
grows on " bluffs," and is the chief winter herbage. Their 
growth, beginning about the first of May, continues till the 
end of July, when the dry season commences ; they then 
dry up, and are cured by the sun ; and as the frosts, let 
them be ever so hard, do not seem to penetrate to the roots, 
or else do not harm them, they retain their full strength 
for the whole winter. To this must be ascribed the barren, 
verdureless aspect of the whole country in late autumn and 
winter, when strangers passing through can hardly com- 
prehend how the countless herds not only' subsist, but grow 
fat on this gray and withered-looking herbage. Nature 
has provided in many ways for her children ; for not only 
can stock find ready shelter under the bluffs, and in the 
many small valleys and glens called pockets and gulches, 
and under the clusters of hardy cedars and spreading Cot- 
tonwood trees which almost serve the purpose of barns 
and stables, but the high winds which prevail after every 
snow storm clear sloping ground in a marvellously short 
time from the snowy pall, driving it together in banks, 
and filling up depressions in the ground. Rarely does the 
dry and flour-like snow crust over, a process which for 
cattle means starvation if warm weather does not soon fol- 
low. . . . During the summer, autumn, and winter, the 
cattle roam at will over the Plains, and different herds, or 
parts thereof, mingle together, and perhaps wander for 
long distances from their home range. Very frequently 
single heads, separated most likely from their herds in a 
stampede, are found two hundred miles away. To collect 
these stragglers, and to take a census no less than to pick 
out the beeves for market, the annual " round up " is held. 



THE CATTLE INDUSTRY 335 

At this period, falling in May and June, the whole coun- 
try is searched, and the cattle appertaining to a district 
driven together in one vast herd, from whence the differ- 
ent ranchmen separate their own cattle, easily recogniz- 
able by the brand ; and after a mutual exchange of strayed 
ones, each owner takes his herd back to their home range, 
and after branding the calves, turns them out loose, not to 
see them again till next year's " round up." 

For each district, embracing many hundred square miles, 
and from ten to twenty ranges, a captain — generally one 
of the old settlers well acquainted with the country — is 
chosen. Under him work the stockmen — cowboys, or 
cowpunchers, as everybody connected with cattle raising 
is called — from the different ranches, numbering often 
seventy or more men, and two hundred or more horses, for 
each cowboy has at least three, and often as many as eight 
spare mounts with him on these occasions. The whole 
country, so large that it will take them one or two months 
to work it over, is laid out in daily rides. . . . 

The round-up is a busy time for man an 1 horse on 
frontier ranches. It is a period affording pleasant change 
to the cowboy, who the rest of the year is buried on his 
isolated ranche, often months without seeing a white man, 
and years frequently pass before the glance of a woman's 
gown makes his heart flutter. There is a wonderful 
amount of animated life, light-hearted merriment, and 
vigorous and healthful rivalry about one of these round- 
ups. They begin with a substantial breakfast, at which 
often half a steer divided among the different messes is 
used; the rising sun sees them in the saddle, a couple of 
lead animals on the line, galloping over the Plains in pur- 
suit of those distant black specks, or ascending the dan- 
gerously steep slopes of a dismal " hog-back " hill, from 
which the higher ranges in the pine-clad mountains are 
reached. They usually do not return to camp till dusk, 
driving before them the cattle found by them that day, 
which, if it is in open country, will often be as many as 



336 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

two hundred to the man ; if broken and full of pockets 
and drars, or densely timbered ravines, perhaps not more 
than ten or fifteen. 

W. Baillie Grohman : Cattle Ranches in the Far West, 
in the Fortnightly Review, Vol. XXXIV, p. 441 ff. 1880. 

Questions 

What rights of taking up ranching land did cattle men enjoy in 
the unsurveyed Territories? What, in the nature of the grasses of 
the Plains, made them good food for cattle all winter? What in the 
physical form of the Great Plains, made it possible for cattle to 
live on them without artificial protection all winter? What was the 
purpose of the round up? How was it carried out? What causes 
made Texas prominent as a cattle State in i860? What outlet to the 
North for marketing cattle was found for her cattle herds ? De- 
scribe the appearance of the cattle trails from Texas to Kansas? 
Why is this method of marketing no longer used? How was a 
herd marshalled for the trail? How rapidly was it driven? De- 
scribe the danger of stampedes? What change has come over the 
cattle towns of the West? 



LVI 

A LATE PHASE OF THE SETTLEMENT OF 

THE WEST. THE OPENING OF AN 

INDIAN RESERVATION 

The greatest of all the free land openings has been the 
last one — that is, the settlement of the Kiowa, Comanche, 
and Wichita Indian reservations in southern Oklahoma. 
This rush eclipsed even the notable Cherokee Strip open- 
ing of September, 1893, when 100,000 people populated a 
four-million-acre tract of such land in one day. This last 
chance for home-seekers proved a greater attraction than 
any previous opportunity extended to them by Uncle Sam. 
In consequence 165,000 people rushed to the border in 
their wild endeavor to gratify that great desire — getting 
something for nothing. Of this army just 152,000 failed 
in their ambition. 



OPENING AN INDIAN RESERVATION 337 

In accordance with a proclamation promulgated by the 
President on July 8, 3,712,503 acres of land in the Kiowa, 
Comanche, Apache, and Wichita reservations of Oklahoma 
were declared soon to be ready for homestead entry by 
whites. The new country is a part of Oklahoma, and its 
people are under the jurisdiction of that Territory. It is 
bounded on the north and west by Oklahoma, on the east 
by Indian Territory, and on the south by Texas. The 
Washita River and several small streams furnish an abun- 
dance of water. In the new country, besides the multi- 
tude of whites who have but lately invaded it, are three 
thousand Indians of the Kiowa, Comanche, Apache, and 
Wichita tribes. They have been each placed on an allot- 
ment of 160 acres, and, for the most part, the redskins are 
civiHzed. Geronimo, the noted Apache warrior, is among 
these Indians who have lately been made United States 
citizens. The new country is finely adapted to farming 
and stock raising; the climate is the same as that of North 
Carolina and Tennessee. Fruit of all kinds can be raised 
in abundance ; there are no drouths, and the hot winds so 
common to the West come to this new country in a cooling 
breeze. 

All kinds of people came to the opening, those who were 
disqualified by the officials hoping to cover up their de- 
fects somehow. Non-citizens of the United States, mar- 
ried women, unless deserted by husbands, minors, persons 
owning more than or even 160 acres of land, all were made 
to keep out of the drawing. 

Offices opened at El Reno and Lawton on July 10. If 
you desired to try for a farm you went before a notary- 
public and filled out a blank which stated that you w^ere 
qualified to homestead a tract of land. This was then 
taken to one of the booths, filed with a clerk, who gave you 
a certificate of registration, and you then had an equal 
chance with the thousands who drew for farms in the great- 
est of lotteries. You paid twenty-five cents, and you were 
qualified to draw a farm worth $5,000 — some five times 
23 



33^^ READINGS IX AMERICAN HISTORY 

as \aluablo. lUu it was a tifteon-to-ono shot against your 
drawino- anything. 

The greatest rush was toward El Reno, on the Hue of 
the Rock Island Railway. That road carried from five to 
twenty thousand persons a day during the registration, 
July 10 to 26. From ten to fifteen excursions were run 
daily, with as many at night. 

It was told me before I reached El Reno that the cow-- 
boys had taken the town. Water was said to be ten cents 
a cup, and ice impossible to buy at any price. I found 
plenty of both. Beds sold at a premium. Men and women 
alike sprawled in the dusty streets at night. Others 
leaned on a box against the side of houses and caught a 
few winks of sleep. . . . 

Saloons did a rushing business. They flourished in tents 
and camp wagons. One man told me he had cleared $500 
a day during the rush. A small boy peddling lemonade, 
at '* all you could drink for five cents," made from $5 to 
$15 a day. Sandwich men were thicker than either, and 
in the same class were men selling maps of the new^ coun- 
try. Three thousand allotments had been taken by the 
Indians in the reservation, and every home-seeker was 
anxious to know the location of these tracts. Again, 
under the rules of the drawing, those who were prize-win- 
ners had to announce at once their choice of land, else they 
lost out. These maps purported to show the best farming- 
land, which, as a matter of fact, they did not. The wise 
element registered first, secured a permit to enter the reser- 
vation, picked out their own land, and returned to El Reno 
for the drawing. . . . 

But the notary-publics did the best business of all the 
street merchants. They reaped a reward of $50,000 from 
home-seekers. The uniform price for making out papers 
to register was twenty-five cents. Everyone who desired 
to register had to have the services of an Oklahoma notary. 
Old soldiers w^ere allowed to file their papers by proxy, 
fifty thousand taking this advantage. Women whose bus- 



OPENING AN INDIAN RESERVATION 339 

bands had died, or who never were married, registered to 
the extent of thirty thousand. 

I was in the rush for land in the Cherokee Strip when 
the run was made for land. In that hundreds of people 
fell beneath the mad racers, and were either killed or in- 
jured. In this opening no one was injured in the rush. 
In the previous openings the '' sooner " took all the best 
land, but here the man whose name was drawn from the 
wheel of chance then secured a clear title to his farm. 
There were many commendable features to this rush. The 
lottery scheme was condemned by those who never wit- 
nessed a free land opening because it was a chance game, 
but it was the best manner of conducting the affair. . . . 

No less than fifty thousand people stood in the hot sun 
on the first day of the great drawing at El Reno. Every 
man and woman who had registered was sure that his or 
her name had been placed in an envelope, and this envelope, 
which was a plain white one, had been placed in a large 
wheel. 

It was a cheerful crowd. The women were restless, and 
anxiety and hope were plainly written on their faces. The 
first name drawn from the wheel was called out in a loud 
voice. A silence fell over the crowd. The lucky winner 
stepped forward and made his choice. He was offered a 
fabulous price for it by real-estate boomers, but he decided 
to keep it. Hope fell among those who remained, and the 
rush at the Rock Island station to get away was even more 
fierce than it had been to get into the country. 

But the home-seekers stood the hardships without a 
murmur. It was useless to complain; they had seen Hfe 
on the border; they had taken a chance in the greatest of 
lotteries, and that was something. To win a farm would 
have been worth much trouble ; but as it was, no crowd was 
ever so willingly separated from its bank-rolls. 

William R. Draper: Harper's Weekly, August lo, 1901, 
\o\. XLV, p. 805. 



340 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Questions 

Who were ineligible to take up homesteads in the reservation? 
How were the drawings of homesteads made? What advantage did 
the man whose name was drawn first have? Describe the scenes at 
El Reno. 



LVII 

THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND 
PROGRESS OF THE NATION 

These two extracts offer, one of them, a statistical estimate 
of the development of American agriculture and the reasons for 
its development; the other, a graphic picture of those causes 
actually at work. These statements were written in the earliest 
years of this century and in this age of rapid progress many 
of their estimates must be taken as antiquated. Especially is 
this true of the statement as to the reduction of prices of agri- 
cultural produce. 



We now come to what is the largest agricultural nation 
in the world — the United States of North America. In 
spite of the immense development of manufactures, these 
States still hold a foremost place also in agriculture, and 
agriculture holds, too, a foremost place in their national 
wealth. . . . Even now the vast resources of the United 
States are only in a comparatively early stage of utiliza- 
tion, and agriculture is by no means carried on as a whole 
so scientifically as in Great Britain, nor is the product of 
the soil so great in proportion to the acre. The States, for 
instance, only produce twelve and one-half bushels of wheat 
to the acre as compared with thirty-three bushels in Eng- 
land, so that if farming was advanced to the same pitch 
as in England the soil of the States would be able to pro- 
duce more than twice as much as it now does. At the 
same time the North American Republic has shown great 
skill in inventing and employing more machinery in the 



AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 341 

operations of agriculture than is usually used in the king- 
doms of Europe. 

The period when agriculture in the States made the most 
rapid strides has been since the middle of the century. 
During the first half of the century the production of grain 
has increased with considerable rapidity, but increased after 
1850 still more quickly. The total grain product in 1800 
is stated to have been one hundred and sixty million 
bushels; in 1840 it was over six hundred million; in 1850 
over eight hundred and sixty million; but in 1870 this last 
figure was doubled (one thousand six hundred and twenty- 
nine million bushels), and then in ten years more (1880) 
was more than trebled, being then over two thousand and 
seven hundred million bushels. At the close of the cen- 
tury the annual grain production is between three and four 
thousand million bushels, or eighty-nine million tons of 
grain, a truly colossal total. 

Much of this increase has been due to the increase in the 
amount of land taken into cultivation, for, in the period 
between 1850 and 1880, the amount of improved land was 
almost doubled. It is a noticeable fact that although there 
are many farms in America of a size altogether unknown 
in Europe, the tendency has been for the average size of 
farms to diminish rather than to grow larger. Ever since 
1870 the area of the land improved has been doubled, and 
farming has made great strides in the Pacific and Western 
States. This is only natural when we consider how the 
West has been opened up by railways, and how the modern 
facilities for cheap transport have enabled farmers almost 
to disregard distance when sending their produce to 
market. 

It is in the West that these large farms are found; in- 
deed the tendency seems to be for the Western and South- 
ern farms to grow larger, while those of the Eastern and 
Middle States grow smaller. Certainly statistics show 
that in the Pacific States the number of acres per farm 
laborer has considerably increased (from forty-two in 1870 



342 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

to seventy-three in 1890), while in the Middle States the 
number has grown less (from fifty-three to forty-three 
acres to each man). On the other hand, taking all farms 
together, we find that the number of laborers required is 
less in proportion than it used to be ; and each laborer cul- 
tivates sixteen acres more than he did some thirty or forty 
years ago. This is probably owing to the greater use of 
machinery and to improvements in its construction. In 
fact, Mr. Carnegie states that improved implements and 
machinery have revolutionized American agriculture. 
Their value was estimated in 1830 at some thirty millions 
sterling, but in 1850 it had been already trebled. Its value 
now is not stated but must be enormous. 

The widespread use of machinery in America is due to 
three causes ; partly the scarcity of labor, which has necessi- 
tated greater economy in labor than is general in Europe; 
partly to the fertility of inventions among the Americans, 
a natural gift, which has been in this case well applied to 
the farmers' necessities; and partly because the American 
farmer is more ready to try new methods and take ad- 
vantage of new ideas than his brother in Europe. It must 
also be admitted that the American agricultural class as a 
whole, is of a distinctly higher type than the European 
peasant, and is generally not only much better educated, but 
also more independent and advanced in his notions both of 
agriculture and of other things. There is also another 
cause for the wide use of machinery, and that is the nature 
of the land, which is fairly level over great stretches of 
country, so that machinery can easily be used thereon. . . . 

Apart from hay, which is a particularly valuable crop, 
and for which the vast levels of much of the United States' 
surface are particularly well suited, we find that maize 
occupies the chief place, being the first among the grain 
crops. It is mostly consumed in the States themselves, 
especially for feeding hogs, but a great amount is also ex- 
ported. The average maize production of the last few 
years has been well over forty million tons per annum, 



AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 343 

whereas wheat alone only came to eleven million tons, 
though in some years both crops are two or three million 
tons more than these figures. Oats, too, are a heavy crop, 
generally being over seventeen million tons. 

But in spite of the immense progress that has been made 
in the growth of crops, it would appear from recent fig- 
ures that the cost of growing maize and wheat has ex- 
ceeded the price obtained, and that there has therefore been 
lately a loss upon these two great grain crops. IMulhall 
makes out that in 1894 there was a loss of one hundred 
and eighty-three milliort dollars on maize ; and it is evident 
that, if this is the case, either still further improvements 
must be made or that less of these crops can be grown. 
There has certainly been a reduction in the prices of all 
agricultural produce during the last fifteen or twenty years 
of the century, and about 1885 to 1890 it was often as- 
serted by those who studied the matter that the acreage 
under wheat at least must in time decrease. But this does 
not appear to have been the case, as the figures still show 
that the wheat area is no smaller, but rather larger, than 
it was. 

It must be remembered that only a very small fraction 
of American grain is grown for export, and that wheat or 
maize which might sell at a loss in the open market is by 
no means necessarily a loss to the farmer who can use it 
on his own farm for feeding purposes. It is perhaps one 
of the most remarkable facts of American agriculture 
that, after all, in spite of the enormous quantities of grain 
that find their way over the sea, the total export of this 
commodity only represents one-twelfth of what has actu- 
ally been raised in the country. So that, even if the export 
trade fell off, the American farmer would have an ex- 
cellent market at home without troubling himself about the 
foreign buyer. 

But if we turn to that typical product of the Southern 
States, cotton, we find that there we have a commodity of 
which by far the greater portion is grown for export ex- 



344 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

clusively. We have in an early chapter given some idea 
of the vast increase which the cotton export has attained 
during the century; and it is indeed marvellous to recall 
this immense growth from very small beginnings. Not 
much more than a hundred years ago, in 1784, a small 
quantity of cotton was imported into Liverpool, where 
(we are told), *' it was at first considered an illegal trans- 
action, as it was not supposed possible for it to have been 
the growth of any of the States of the Union ; and when, 
about the same period, a duty was proposed in the United 
States Congress upon the import of foreign cotton, it was 
declared by one of the representatives from South Caro- 
lina, that the cultivation of cotton was in contemplation by 
the planters of South Carolina and Georgia, and that if 
good seed could be secured it might succeed." 

These modest words, '' it might succeed," sounded a very 
few years later almost ludicrous. Already by the year 
1830 the crop was not very far short of a million bales, 
and by the year 1880 it was over five million bales, valued 
at fifty-five million pounds sterling (English). Or, if we 
take it by weight, during the latter part of the century, 
we see again what a great advance this industry of cotton 
growing was made. The annual average from 1867 to 
1871 was six hundred thousand tons; ten years later (1877- 
1881) it was one million and one hundred thousand tons; 
ten years later (1887-91) and it was just a million tons 
more than it had been twenty years previously, for it had 
reached one million six hundred thousand. The figures 
down to 1896 show an average of one million eight hun- 
dred thousand tons annually. 

The export statistics show a similar increase. From 
four hundred thousand tons in 1867-71, they rose to more 
than double that number in 1882- 1886, being then eight 
hundred and eighty thousand, while the figures to 1896 
show that one million two hundred thousand tons were 
being then exported every year. This leaves about six 
hundred thousand tons for home use, and this is used in 



AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 345 

the American factories. Thus we see that at the close of 
the century the cotton used in the American mills is just 
about equivalent to the amount that was sent abroad about 
the year 1870. In other words, America sends away about 
two-thirds of her total cotton crop, and retains one-third 
for her own manufactures. It is curious to notice that, 
though these cotton manufactures have increased very 
greatly in importance of late years, yet the proportion of 
cotton used in them — namely one-third — is exactly the 
same as it was thirty years ago. 

The value of the cotton crop is of some interest. It is 
now about two hundred and seventy-five million dollars 
annually, or fifty-five million pounds in English money — 
which is not much more than the value about 1870, and 
almost exactly the same as the value in the period 1871- 
1876, although the crop is now^ so much larger. This is 
due to the fall in prices that has taken place in recent years, 
so that in every department of agriculture we find the 
figures of value a very unsafe guide; and it is better 
to go exclusively by the quantity of the various crops. 
What is perhaps rather surprising to the ordinary reader 
is the fact that now, at the close of the century, the value 
of the hay crop is nearly double that of cotton. The 
average value of hay in late years has been four hundred 
and seventy-eight million dollars ; but then the crop is very 
much heavier than the cotton crop, being over five million 
tons as compared with rather less than one and a quarter 
milHon. The Pacific States it may be noted give what is 
the heaviest hay crop to the acre in any country, except 
Ireland. 

The live stock of the great Republic is enormous. We 
might call America both the granary and the butcher's 
shop of the world. Yet the millions upon millions of 
horses, cattle, sheep, pigs and fowls now possessed by the 
American have nearly all become his property during the 
present century. The beginning of our period showed a 
comparatively small amount of live stock. In 1810 there 



346 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

were only three hundred thousand horses, six hundred 
thousand cattle and as many sheep; and of other animals 
we have no exact record. But the next thirty years saw 
a wonderful increase, and the live stock certainly grew and 
multiplied with great rapidity. In the year 1840 they were 
no longer counted by thousands but by millions. There were 
then over four million horses and nearly fifteen million cat- 
tle, over nineteen milHon sheep and twenty-six milUon pigs. 

Forty years later, the increase still continued. In 1880 
there were over ten million horses, nearly thirty-six mil- 
lion cattle, thirty-five million sheep, and forty-seven million 
pigs. In that year it could be said as Mr. Carnegie puts it 
in his glowing volume — though his figures do not quite 
agree with other authorities — that '' if the live stock on 
Uncle Sam's estate were ranged five abreast, each animal 
estimated to occupy a space five feet long, and then 
marched round the world, the head and tail of the pro- 
cession would overlap." The same author remarks : 
''This was the host of 1880; that of 1885 would be ever 
so much greater, and still it grows day by day, and the 
end of its growth no man can foretell." 

In this, however, he was wrong. The progress of pas- 
toral industry in the United States, marvellous as it has 
been, seems in the closing years of the century to have 
been checked. That the check is only temporary we may 
wxU believe ; but still the fact remains that the previous 
increase has not gone on. The figures of 1897 were large 
enough certainly, but they were a good deal less than those 
of 1890. The number of horses was about the same (six- 
teen millions) but the cattle were quite six million less 
(forty-six as against fifty-two million), and the sheep eight 
million less (only thirty-six as against forty-four million), 
while the pigs had suft'ered a loss of eleven million (being 
only forty as compared with fifty-one million). The ratio 
of cattle to population has thus fallen nearly twenty-three 
per cent since 1890, and is even below the level of twenty 



AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 347 

years ago. Reducing all live stock to a common unit, we 
may reckon that there is now an equivalent of some sev- 
enty-five million head of cattle in the Republic, which is 
much less than there was in 1890, and about the same as in 
1886. But it is estimated that the pasture available in the 
United States could easily carry double this amount of 
stock, and Mulhall calculates that, if an increase once more 
begins, the number of live stock may easily rise to an 
equivalent of one hundred million of cattle in the early 
years of the twentieth century. In this equivalent six 
sheep or pigs count as one head of cattle. In the six years 
1880 to 1886 the live stock showed the remarkable increase 
of thirty per cent, so that under favorable conditions, and 
with more inducements to breeders, the hundred million 
might very soon be reached. 

A great factor in the past increase of live stock has been 
the immense export trade in both live and dead meat; for 
the modern inventions of science have made it possible for 
meat and live cattle to be transported across the ocean in 
a few days, by the aid of steam, while the various freez- 
ing processess have enabled buyers to keep the meat al- 
most any length of time to suit the convenience of the 
market. In view of the remarkable change in the condi- 
tions of the food market of the world thus brought about 
by the inventions of the nineteenth century, one cannot help 
feeling that a new era has dawned upon the earth. There 
cannot be, at least in any period of time which the readers 
of these pages are likely to behold, any such fear of death 
and scarcity which prevailed earlier in the century. . . . 
If the nineteenth century were remarkable for nothing 
else, it would be famous as the century which has thrown 
open the great storehouses of food to the hungry multi- 
tudes, and has relieved the crowded cities and countries of 
Europe from any fear of a deficient food supply. And 
this has been accomplished not only by the progress of 
agricultural science itself, but by the help given to agri- 



348 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

culture by the steamship, the raihvay, the tin can, and the 
freezing machine. 

H. deB. Gibbins : Economic and Industrial Progress of 
the Century, pp. 405 ff. Bradley-Garretson Co., Brant- 
ford, Ontario, 1903. 

B 

During the past generation a vast number of the small 
farmers of New England and the older sections of the 
United States were practically forced out of business by 
the development of the great farms in the West and North- 
west. The hilly lands of the East, frequently rough and 
stony, and always cut up into small farms, proved unable 
to compete with the vast areas of level ground, cultivated 
and harvested in a wholesale manner by a class of machines 
that could not possibly be employed on small farms or on 
rough ground. Owing to these vastly different conditions, 
the methods of farming are totally different in the West 
from those prevailing in the East, and the growing of heavy 
crops, such as wheat and hay, are left almost wholly to the 
great Western farms, while the small farms of the East 
are in many cases reduced to farming for local consump- 
tion only, to raising of truck or vegetables for the cities 
near by, and also to the raising of small fruits, especially 
apples, peaches and grapes, or the growing of tobacco. 

An idea of the vastness of some of the Western wheat 
farms may be gained from the statement that the Mitchell 
farm, in San Joaquin Valley, California, comprises 90,000 
acres ; while the Dalrymple farm in North Dakota, is not 
far behind, with 70,000 acres. The latter farm has em- 
ployed as many as 300 binding reapers to harvest its wheat 
crop. Near the town of Clovis, Fresno County, California, 
is a wheat field containing forty square miles. As the 
ground lies almost in an exact square, it presents in the 
season just before harvest the appearance of an endless 
sea of waving grain. ... 



AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 349 

If a single man were to undertake to plow such a field 
in the old-fashioned way, it would require sixteen years 
for him to complete his spring plowing, as much longer 
to do the harrowing, and, if he were fortunate, he might 
finish sowing the seed before he died; but, though the 
preparing and sowing would occupy one man's lifetime, 
300 modern steam harvesters and threshers can make com- 
paratively short work of the harvest in even an enormous 
field such as this. One of these machines with a 26-foot 
cutter is expected to do seventy-five acres per day. . . . 

On the large level farms of the great West plowing is 
never done with a single horse and plow, as in the East, 
but the plows are set in gangs and driven by great trac- 
tion steam-engines. When the field is fairly well soft- 
ened the wheat plowing can be done with gangs of rotary 
plows, these having cupped discs set at an angle and 
weighted so as to sink into the soil. . . . The use of the 
traction engine instead of horse-power renders possible the 
employment of reapers and harvesters of great size with 
cutting power of unusual strength. 

The machines employed are, as far as possible, arranged 
in combination, so that the labor of a few men may accom- 
plish a great deal of work. For instance, a traction engine 
may be arranged to draw a line of plows, while hitched 
immediately in the rear is a row of harrows, and behind 
these are a drill for sowing the seed and rakes for cover- 
ing it. In the reaping operation the traction engine draws 
mechanism that not only heads the wheat, but also threshes 
it, cleans it, and puts it into sacks at a single continuous 
operation. . . . 

The wheat crop of the United States for 1902 was val- 
ued at $422,000,000, of which about one-third was ex- 
ported, either as wheat or flour. As the yield per capita 
is smaller than it was some years ago, the conclusion is 
that after another generation we may cease to be exporters 
of wheat, requiring all our crop for home consumption. 
Improvement in wheat cultivation has been less marked 



350 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

than with corn. The farmers in many cases seem to raise 
it on land that they do not know what else to do with, and 
the average yield, under an average lack-of-system tillage, 
is but thirteen bushels per acre. When it is remembered 
that well-tilled land can be made to produce thirty bushels 
per acre every year, it becomes very apparent that there 
is a great work to be done in this country in reforming the 
present slack methods of wheat growing. Our agricultur- 
ists have been giving their attention to developing wonder- 
ful planting and harvesting machines, but have generally 
neglected high tillage, which is essential to large crops. 
The Department of Agriculture is doing good work in call- 
ing attention to this condition of affairs. . . .^ 

The development of American farming is very much 
owing to the wise expenditures of the Government in the 
maintenance of an Agricultural Department, and various 
agricultural colleges and stations for scientific study of the 
problems that confront the tiller of the soil. Some fifty- 
five million dollars have been invested in buildings, ap- 
paratus, machinery, libraries, and equipment for these in- 
stitutions, which have a total income of over six million 
dollars a year. Our agricultural colleges now contain over 
30,000 students, of whom over 4,000 take special courses in 
agriculture. 

In breeding plants the most recent theory is to discard 
novelty and to seek to increase the efficiency of the special 
plant under experiment ; as, for instance, in the case of 
corn, the endeavor would be to cross varieties in a way to 
strengthen resistance to drought or to increase its starch 
contents. It is not the beautiful form of an ear of corn 
that determines the value of a variety so much as its food 
quality and its resistance to disease. . . . 

The study of new varieties of crops has resulted in a 
number of successes, and most noteworthy among them is 

1 The paragraphs in this selection have been slightly rearranged 
for greater clearness. 



AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMEXT 351 

that of importing the AustraHan sakbush. This was orig- 
inally sought in order to redeem the semi-arid lands of the 
West, and it was found that it rendered available for graz- 
ing thousands of acres that were previously considered 
worthless. . . . 

In testing varieties of small fruits and vegetables, and 
in studying practical methods of improving them, the agri- 
cultural stations have aided greatly in building up horti- 
cultural science. The work of the experts and students at 
the stations is very largely added to by the thousands of 
co-operative agricultural experiments undertaken by farm- 
ers, who are interested in the work of the stations. The 
agricultural stations furnish plans of work for these, and 
all the seeds, fertilizers, fungicides and other materials 
required, and also assist the farmer with any required data 
as to the nature of his soil and what it may require. In 
return for this the farmer usually gives the use of land 
and labor, which is of benefit to the station. 

The dairy farmers have received a great deal of assist- 
ance from the agricultural department ; the constituents of 
milk have undergone a great deal of study; also methods 
of feeding cows and determining the amount of fat and 
other ingredients of the milk, the investigation having also 
extended into the dangers of milk infection, as in the case 
of tuberculous cows, and effective work has been done 
along the lines of pasteurization as well as in methods 
of sterilization. The use of cultures in butter-making and 
cheese-making, as undertaken in the ripening of cheese, 
have also furnished fertile fields of work. 

As our population increases it is evident that there must 
be a curtailment of the land now devoted to grazing ani- 
mals. The cattle range is located where the land is of 
trifling value, but as values increase it is necessary to con- 
fine animals to smaller areas. The agricultural stations 
have proven that a farm animal can be kept on about one- 
tenth of the land used in cattle ranges, by correct methods 
of preserving herbage for its use. Green cattle foods can 



352 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

be preserved, by the use of the silo, in a state that is almost 
as valuable for future consumption as at the time they are 
cut. The stalks of Indian corn and sorghum and other 
green forage crops are all nutritious and good to be used as 
cattle foods if they are properly intermixed with other 
foods. 

When it comes to the question of feeding the greater 
population that will occupy our land fifty or one hundred 
years to come, the agricultural student meets the point by 
demonstrating that whereas the present average yield of 
wheat to the acre in the United States is about thirteen 
bushels, and that of Indian corn about twenty-seven bushels, 
with proper attention to feeding the soil scientifically, the 
production of wheat can be increased three or four times, 
while that of Indian corn can be considerably more than 
doubled. 

C. H. Cochrane : Modern Industrial Progress, p. 209 ff. 
J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1904. 

Questions 

Compare the efficiency of farming in the United States with the 
efficiency in Great Britain. Give a statement of the increase in 
grain production in the United States in the nineteenth century. 
How far is this traceable to increase in area of farm lands? How 
has agricultural machinery reduced the number of agricultural labor- 
ers to the acre? What have been the reasons for development of 
such machinery in the United States? How does the American 
agricultural laborer compare with the European? What proportion 
of the cereal crops of the United States are grown for export? 
Trace the development of the cotton industry in the United States. 
Is the cotton crop important for its actual value as compared to 
that of other crops, or for the great foreign market it com- 
mands? Sketch the development of stock raising in the United 
States. What was the tendency between 1890 and 1897? Have we 
reached the limit of our pasturage if it is properly used? How 
have modern inventions made the exportation of meat products pos- 
sible ? 

Why have the old settled sections of the country been unable to 
compete with the Great West in raising grain? To what crops are 



AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT 353 

they turning? How large are some of the wheat farms of the West ? 
On what scale is machinery applied to its cultivation? How is the 
Department of Agriculture with the experiment stations and the 
agricultural colleges engaged in increasing the product of the land? 
How do the experiment stations cooperate directly with the farmer? 
What work is being done in the introduction of new crops? The 
advancement of dairy science? How is it hoped that the meat sup- 
ply of the country may be provided by cattle raised on land areas 
smaller than those of the old cattle ranches? 



24 



PART XI 

INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND ORGANIZATION 

LVIII 

GENERAL INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS OF THE 
COUNTRY 

But the manufactures even of these two last named 
great industrial nations ^ pale into insignificance compared 
with those of another and more formidable competitor for 
the world's custom. The greatest manufacturing nation 
of the end of the nineteenth century is not to be found in 
the Old World but the New. It is to the United States 
of America that this proud position must be assigned. 
Writing in 1887, Andrew Carnegie, himself a typical ex- 
ample of a great industrialist, said in his book, Triumphant 
Democracy, " No statement in this book will probably cause 
so much surprise as that the young Republic, and not Great 
Britain, is to-day the greatest manufacturing nation of the 
world, for she is generally credited with being great only in 
agriculture." If this was true in 1887 it was still more 
true in 1897, and as years go by it will lose none of its 
actuality. . . . 

Of course it must be remembered that the United States 
have been singularly favored in manufacturing industries. 
Their position itself, far removed from any competitors, is 
a great help to their manufactures, even though the Euro- 
pean makers have had a start in supplying the American 
market. Then again they have the advantage of learning 
from the English all the inventions and discoveries which 
created the industrial revolution which began in the eight- 
eenth and has gone on so rapidly in the nineteenth century. 

1 Germany and England. 

354 



INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND ORGANIZATION 355 

They did not, like the EngHsh, have to learn all these 
things as best they could, by experience that was often 
costly, but they were able to see at once the best English and 
European inventions and to profit thereby. They were 
able to pass rapidly over the first years of toilsome ex- 
periment, and step at once into the ripe experience of Euro- 
pean mechanics and engineers. True, the American manu- 
facturer had the brains to assimilate rapidly the experience 
thus gained by those others, and even to improve upon it, 
but those who so glowingly describe American progress — 
which is indeed magnificent — must not forget that it would 
hardly have been possible but for the example and experi- 
ence which lay before them in the old country of Eng- 
land. 

Nevertheless, making all allowances, the growth of manu- 
factures and of mining in the United States has been most 
remarkable, not only in textiles and in hardware, but also in 
many minor industries. Much of this increase has been 
due to improved methods and the utilisation of modern 
machinery, so that the annual product of each manufactur- 
ing operative has risen to a proportion altogether beyond 
that usual in European countries. Taking textile indus- 
tries first, we find that the manufacture of cotton has pro- 
ceeded by leaps and bounds, and although it does not quite 
rival that of Great Britain even now, the figures of its prog- 
ress show how steadily the American cotton manufacture 
has extended. In 1830 the consumption of cotton in the 
United States was fifty-two million pounds (weight) ; 
thirty years later it was almost eight times as much, and 
in 1870 was quite ten times the former figure (five hundred 
and thirty million pounds). Or again, if we take the con- 
sumption of fibre, which is perhaps the fairest test of 
textile progress, we find that the United States use in their 
cotton mills about six hundred thousand tons of cotton 
annually, as compared with seven hundred and ten thou- 
sand in Great Britain. We do not find, however, that 
there has been such a rapid increase since 1880, as there was 



356 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

before that time, for, of the total American cotton crop of 
1897, about thirteen hundred milHon pounds weight was 
retained at home as compared with a thousand million in 
1881 ; but as the total crop of 1897 was a thousand million 
pounds heavier than that of 1881, the proportion retained 
for home use was really not so great. 

In the same way the American woollen trade has prog- 
ressed very greatly, especially between i860 and 1880, dur- 
ing which period it increased threefold. In 1880 the 
United States manufactured not very much less wool than 
the United Kingdom (three hundred and twenty million 
pounds in the States, as compared with three hundred and 
thirty-eight million in the British Isles) ; but at the end of 
the century we find that the States have exceeded England 
in their annual consumption of wool fibre, for they use 
two hundred and seventy thousand tons of wool, as against 
the British total of two hundred and thirty thousand. We 
also find that the carpet trade, which is of comparatively 
recent origin in the States, has developed very rapidly, and 
it is noticeable that in this, as in many other textile indus- 
tries, the Americans have been able to secure the services 
of many skilled operatives, who have left the mills of the 
Old Country to proceed to those of the New. 

But of all the list of American manufactures, perhaps 
the most surprising progress has been made in iron and 
steel. Here again it is only in the last half century that 
the United States have come forward as great producers 
of these metal wares. Indeed, by far the greater portion 
of the progress made has been the work of the last thirty 
years. In 1870 there were only sixty-four thousand tons 
of all kinds of steel made in the States, of which only forty 
thousand were Bessemer steel, and the States ranked much 
below France and Germany in the manufacture of this ar- 
ticle. Yet ten years later they produced more than both 
these countries put together, and as early as 1882 the 
produce of steel was one million two hundred and fifty 
thousand tons. At the present time the United States head 



INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND ORGANIZATION 357 

the list of steel-producing countries, producing over six 
million tons annually, as compared with three million eight 
hundred thousand tons in Great Britain and about two 
million in Germany. 

But the States do not export by any means so much of 
this article as does Great Britain, for in 1895 the value of 
British exports of hardware was five times more than those 
of the United States, and it is evident that most of the 
American hardware products are consumed in the States 
themselves. But after all, the metaUic industries of Amer- 
ica are only in their infancy, for no country in the world 
seems to contain such vast stores of iron ore and of coal, 
and these enormous resources have as yet been only par- 
tially developed. If full advantage were taken of them 
there is very little doubt that even the present pre-eminence 
of America in this department would become more and 
more strongly marked. 

It is impossible in the space at our disposal to mention 
separately every manufacturing industry, but we may point 
out one or two, which may be regarded as typical of the 
country, and may also call attention to certain features 
which appear in nearly all branches of American industry. 
Thus one industry, peculiarly American, which the States 
share in common with Canada, is the timber or lumber 
trade, to which the vast forests of the great continent nat- 
urally attract a large share of industrial energy. The 
three States in which the timber is chiefly cut are those of 
Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. . It seems to be im- 
possible to give accurate statistics of the amount of timber 
cut, or the area devoted to forests, but those of the South 
are said to be four times as great as the forests of the three 
States just mentioned, and other forest areas are being 
opened up in Washington Territory, Oregon and Northern 
California. Mr. Andrew Carnegie points out that there 
are vast regions in America where the raising of timber 
is the only cultivation possible, and others where trees can 
be more profitably grown than anything else. So that there 



358 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

need be no fear as to the diminution of available timber of 
of the destruction of the forests. We need hardly in this 
place say much about the varieties of American timber. 
They are now well known in every civilized country. 
Many million feet of ash, maple, mahogany, walnut, oak 
and less known varieties are exported from every Ameri- 
can port. . . . 

Nothing is more striking in the record of American prog- 
ress than the success with which the citizens of the great 
Republic have entered upon branches of manufacture with 
which they were previously unfamiliar. A striking ex- 
ample of this is to be found in the making of watches. It 
is not very long since, as Mr. Carnegie points out, that 
nearly every watch carried by an American was imported. 
The chief seat of watch manufacture was in Switzerland, 
where labor was cheap and where watches were made by 
hand, either in the homes of the workmen themselves, or 
in small factories. But the inventive skill of American 
citizens discovered methods by which watches could be 
made in large factories by the use of machinery for every 
part, and the result is that watches are now exported by 
the States in enormous numbers to every nation in Europe. 
They are produced so cheaply by machinery that it has be- 
come impossible for mere manual labor to compete with 
them, at any rate in the cheaper grades; yet wages are 
higher in America than in any European country, and it is 
only the superior skill of the workmen and their ingenuity 
in invention which has enabled them to achieve so much 
success. 

Another good example of American ingenuity may be 
seen in the manufacture of boots and shoes, although this 
particular branch of industry has long been established in 
the States, and is by no means so recent as that of watches. 
But here to quote the words once more of the author of 
Triumphant Democracy, " Machinery seems to have 
reached its culmination. The human hand does little but 
guide the material from machine to machine ; and the ham- 



INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND ORGANIZATION 359 

mering, the stamping and sewing are all done by the tire- 
less energy of steam. It is no fiction to say that men put 
leather into the machine at one end, and it comes out a 
perfect fitting boot at the other. By means of such a ma- 
chine, a man can make 300 pairs of boots in one day, and 
a single factory in Massachusetts turns out as many pairs 
yearly as thirty-two thousand bootmakers in Paris. The 
old-fashioned cobbler is as surely doomed to extinction as 
the New Zealand Maori." 

This industry also illustrates a noticeable feature in all 
American manufacture, and that is, the concentration of 
manufactures into fewer hands than before. There is a 
growing tendency to the extinction of the smaller makers. 
It has become more and more the rule for all kinds of in- 
dustries to be carried on in works of enormous size, con- 
trolled by individuals or companies possessing enormous 
capital. A similar tendency, as is well known, is seen, not 
only in the production of goods, but also in their distribu- 
tion ; smaller capitalists and smaller factories are swallowed 
up by the large wholesale concerns, and the small trades- 
man or merchant has to give way to the large wholesale 
company. 

We can hardly leave the subject of manufactures without 
some brief notice of the closely allied department of mining 
and minerals. Like the old country of England, the United 
States possess coalfields of great value, but their extent 
far surpasses that of the little Mother Country. It is said 
that the United States coalfields cover an area of three 
hundred thousand square miles, as compared with twelve 
thousand square miles in Great Britain, and these enormous 
resources have been developed with amazing rapidity in 
the last twenty years. In 1880 there were about seventy 
million tons of coal raised in the United States, but ten 
years later, just double that quantity; and in 1896 no less 
than one hundred and seventy million tons wxre raised. 
Going back to 1870 we find the amount raised was only 
thirty-three million tons, so that in a quarter of a century 



360 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

the output of American coal has increased four hundred 
and twenty per cent. 

Much of this comes from Pennsylvania, which also pos- 
sesses valuable deposits of anthracite, which are of re- 
markable thickness, being in some cases more than three 
thousand feet through. . . . We have already referred, un- 
der the heading of manufactures, to the immense quantities 
of iron produced in the republic, and taking pig-iron as 
our standard, we find that in twenty years, 1877- 1898, the 
amount produced rose from two million to more than 
eleven and a half million tons, an increase of nearly six- 
fold. . . . 

The discovery of natural gas is thus described by an 
American author : " A company was drilling for petro- 
leum in Murraysville, near Pittsburg (in 1880). A depth 
of 1,320 feet had been reached when the drills were thrown 
high into the air, and the derrick blown into pieces and 
scattered around by a tremendous explosion of gas, which 
rushed with hoarse shriekings into the air, alarming the 
population for miles around. A light was applied and im- 
mediately there leaped into life a fierce dancing demon of 
fire, hissing and swirling around with the wind, and scorch- 
ing the earth in a wide circle around it. Thinking it was 
but a temporary outburst preceding the oil, the men al- 
lowed their valuable fuel to waste for five years. Coal in 
that region cost only two to three shillings per ton, and 
there was little inducement to sink capital in attempts to 
supersede it with a fuel which, though cheaper, might fail 
as suddenly as it had arisen. 

" But as the years passed, and the giant leaped and 
danced as madly as at first, a company was formed to pro- 
vide for the utilisation of the gas. Boring began in other 
districts, and soon round Pittsburg were twenty gas wells, 
one yielding thirty million cubic feet a day. A single well 
has furnished gas equal to twelve hundred tons of coal a 
day. Numerous lines of pipes, aggregating six hundred 
miles, now convey the gas from the wells to the manufac- 



INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND ORGANIZATION 361 

turing centers of Pittsburg and Alleghany City and their 
suburbs. At present gas wells in and around Pittsburg are 
so numerous as to be counted in hundreds. The number 
of companies chartered to supply natural gas in Pennsyl- 
vania up to February 5, 1884, was one hundred and fifty, 
representing a capital stock of many millions. Since that 
date numerous other charters have been granted. More 
than sixty wells have been drilled at Erie, Pennsylvania. 
Gas has also been found in small quantities in the States 
of Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, 
Alabama, Kansas, Dakota and California. It is used for 
manufacturing purposes upon a small scale in eight towns 
in New York, in twenty-four towns in Pennsylvania, and 
in five in Ohio, but so far the region round Pittsburg is 
the only one in which the much-desired fuel has been found 
in abundance." 

Another phenomenon of the same nature as this extraor- 
dinary outflow of gas is the flow of natural oil or petro- 
leum. Before the natural oil was discovered, petroleum 
was distilled from coal and the price was as much as eight 
shillings a bottle when used, as it often was, for medicinal 
purposes. But the existence of natural oil was known to 
the Red Indians of America, who found it oozing out from 
river banks, and floating on the water, whence they col- 
lected it by means of blankets and used it for mixing with 
their war-paint. In 1859, a company was formed in Penn- 
sylvania in order to bore for the sources of this product, 
and many other companies followed this example. In some 
districts the yield was most enormous, and it became im- 
possible to collect in barrels all that poured forth, and often 
it was allowed to run to waste as being of little value. A 
well sunk at Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, in 1859, ?^ve a thou- 
sand barrels daily, but the very next year there were two 
thousand wells at the same place, seventy-four of which 
gave fifty thousand gallons daily. Down to 1889 niore 
than three thousand wells had been dug in the States, and 
though only about one well in five struck oil, the total prod- 



1^2 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

uct in thirty years, since the discovery in 1859, reached the 
enormous total of fifteen thousand milHon gallons. In 
1896, the United States raised more than two thousand mil- 
lion gallons and the rate of production has been increasing 
year by year, and shows no sign of diminishing. In or- 
der to bring this copious supply more easily to the towns on 
the Atlantic coast, and to the seaports for the purposes 
of foreign trade, American ingenuity devised a system of 
conducting it in pipes like water. About a third of the 
total produce is thus brought down to the coast and ex- 
ported. 

H. deB. Gibbins : Economic and Industrial Progress of 
the Century, pp. 453 ff. Bradley-Garretson Co., Brant- 
ford, Ontario, 1903. 

Questions 

What advantage has the United States enjoyed in the rapid de- 
velopment of her manufacturing industries? How have our wool 
and cotton textile industries grown as compared with Great Brit- 
ain's? In what period has the increased production of iron and steel 
in the United States been most marked? What natural advantages 
in this Hne of production does the United States possess? How have 
American methods revolutionized the watchmaking industry? The 
boot and shoe industry? Describe the discovery and development 
of natural gas in the United States. Of petroleum. It should be 
noticed that this account was written at the end of the last century, 
or at the beginning of this, and that a good many changes have 
occurred since that time, most notably in the supply and use of 
natural gas. 



LIX 
HOW A BIG MODERN BUSINESS IS ORGANIZED 

This illustrates at least one of the causes for the advance of 
American manufacturing in the past few years — careful and 
thorough organization with a view to doing every piece of work 
as cheaply and as efficiently as possible. The action of the 
Carnegie Steel Company in gaining control of the sources of its 



INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND ORGANIZATION 363 

raw materials had an object not primarily connected with the 
search after efficiency ; the purpose was to prevent other persons 
or corporations from starving it out by monopolizing the supply 
of ore of a certain essential kind, or the supply of coking coal 
or of other materials. Another factor in the efficiency of the 
Carnegie Company was the crushing of the labor unions in its 
plants wnth the result that the employes could not protest as a 
body against what they might consider low wages or improper 
conditions of work. The Carnegie Company represented ef- 
ficiency through organization at its highest pitch. It is an open 
question whether the Steel Trust which absorbed the Carnegie 
Company, or in fact whether many other trusts really produce 
goods as cheaply as they could be produced by smaller concerns 
under a system of competition. This is a verg big and difficult 
question and probably there is no one rule that can be every- 
where applied. At all events, this selection shows us the meth- 
ods of growth of the big concetn. 

The manufacturing companies which were originally 
merged into the United States Steel Corporation may be 
divided, on the basis of their products, into two classes. 
The Carnegie Steel Company, the Federal Steel Company, 
and the National Steel Company were large producers of 
steel billets, ingots, bars, plates, and slabs — products not 
yet in their final form, and constituting the materials for 
other branches of the iron and steel industry. The second 
group, including the National Tube, American Steel and 
Wire, American Tin Plate, American Steel Hoop, and 
American Sheet Steel companies were, as their titles in- 
dicate, producers of finished steel goods. They obtained 
most of their materials from the primary producers of 
steel, and converted them into wire, pipes, tin-plates, sheets, 
cotton ties, and structural material. . . . 

In 1882, the Carnegie Steel Company (then Carnegie, 
Phipps and Company) had inaugurated a policy whose ob- 
ject was to control all the factors contributing to the pro- 
duction of steel, from the ore and coal in the ground to 
the steel billet and the steel rail. The purchase of a con- 
trolling interest in the stock of the H. C. Frick Coke Com- 



364 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

pany, the largest owner of coal-lands and the largest pro- 
ducer of coke in the Connellsville region, insured to Car- 
negie, Phipps and Company, besides a majority share in 
the earnings from the sale of coke in the open market, a 
supply of coke at prices so close to the cost of production 
as in later years to be a matter of legal complaint from the 
minority stockholders. In 1899, the Frick Coke Company 
owned fully two-thirds of the coal remaining in the Con- 
nellsville region. The Carnegie Company also leased 98,- 
000 acres of natural-gas land in western Pennsylvania, and 
purchased valuable limestone quarries in the Pittsburg 
district, securing by these several purchases, an independ- 
ent supply of fuel and fluxing material, and adding to the 
earnings of their steel-mills the profits on the production 
of these materials. . . . 

The Carnegie Company was also active in obtaining con- 
trol of its ore supply and its transportation facilities. By 
the purchase, in 1896, of a five-sixths interest in the stock 
of the Oliver Iron Mining Company, which controlled large 
ore deposits in the Gogebic and Mesaba ranges — holdings 
which have since been greatly increased — and by a fifty 
year contract, made in 1897, with the Rockefeller iron min- 
ing and transportation companies, by which the Carnegie 
Company agreed to pay a royalty of $1.05 per ton for a 
yearly supply of 1,500,000 tons of soft ore delivered on 
shipboard, and a further maximum payment of 80 cents 
per ton for the transportation of this ore to the lower lake 
ports, the Carnegie Company secured an abundant supply 
of both hard and soft ores at prices which were not only 
more stable than those of the open market, but which were 
lower than the prices paid by outside companies. The 
Carnegie Company also purchased a controlling interest in 
the Pittsburg Steamship Company, owning, in 1900, 11 
steamships and 2 tug-boats, with 6 additional steamers 
under construction. 

It also secured control of the Pittsburg, Bessemer and 
Lake Erie Railroad, extending from Conneaut, Ohio, where 



1 



INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND ORGANIZATION 365 

large docks were built and ore-handling machinery installed, 
to the Carnegie mills at Duquesne. This railroad was re- 
ballasted with cinder from the blast-furnaces, and relaid 
with 100-pound rails. The equipment was replaced by the 
first steel cars used in the United States, and by the heaviest 
engines. Through these improvements, the cost of trans- 
portation was reduced to i mill per ton mile, the lowest 
cost, with one exception, of any railroad in the world. The 
ownership of an ore fleet made the Carnegie Company in- 
dependent of the wide fluctuations in lake rates, and their 
control of the railroad gave them transportation at cost ; 
for the Pittsburg, Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad, until 
1900, had paid no dividends. . . . 

By the close of 1897, ^^^^ Carnegie Company was almost 
completely self-sufficient in all the factors of production. 
The profits which competitors added to their costs were 
added to its earnings ; and the possession of these advan- 
tages, along with the admirable equipment of its furnaces 
and mills, gave to the Carnegie Company the foremost 
position in the iron and steel trade of the United States, if 
not in the world. . . . 

. . . The Carnegie Steel Company owned the most com- 
plete, the best-equipped, and the best-managed steel plant 
in the United States. . . . No one of its rivals was worthy 
to be compared with it in point of self-sufficiency of pro- 
duction. This equipment supplied ore and fuel to the mills 
which were grouped so closely about Pittsburg that the 
president of the company was able to visit some depart- 
ment of each mill on successive days. . . . All these plants 
were connected by the Union Railway, with thirty-nine 
miles of track, which in turn connected with the Pittsburg, 
Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad to the north. This ar- 
rangement of mines, coke ovens, and mills was the most 
favorable that could have been devised for economical pro- 
duction. 

The mills of the Carnegie Steel Company were concen- 
trated at the point of largest present advantage, where ma- 



366 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

terials could be most easily assembled, and from which the 
largest markets could be most easily reached. It was this 
fact of concentration even more than their superior facilities 
which gave to the Carnegie Company their most pronounced 
advantage. The mills of their rivals were too widely scat- 
tered. Their location ante-dated the recognition of Pitts- 
burg as the natural seat of the iron and steel industry. 
For example, the plants of the National Steel Company 
were at Youngstown, Columbus, Bellaire Mills, and Mingo 
Junction in Ohio, and at New Castle, Sharon, and Union- 
town in Pennsylvania. All of these plants could not have 
equal advantages in obtaining materials, and no one of 
them was so well situated as the mills at Pittsburg. The 
plants of the National Tube Company were even more 
scattered, and those of the American Steel and Wire Com- 
pany were distributed over the whole face of the land. 

A grant of land, a cash bonus, ten years' exemption from 
taxation, a local connection, any one of a number of causes 
entirely disconnected from considerations of economic pro- 
duction, had determined the original location of these 
plants. . . . The plan of concentration on Neville's Island, 
which the American Steel and Wire Company had already 
begun to execute, was an evident recognition, on their part, 
of the superior economy of concentrated production, in 
power, in labor, in superintendence, and in the provision 
of materials. Mr. Carnegie had anticipated his rivals by 
twenty years. All the benefits of centralization which they 
were striving for, he had long since achieved. 

The advantages of the Carnegie Company did not stop 
here. Their mechanical equipment was superior to that 
of any other mills, and their business was the best man- 
aged of any in the country. . . . The superior equipment 
of the Carnegie works was the result of a policy of large 
expenditure upon betterments persistently pursued for 
many years. *' Every new process and every new machine 
which would in any way increase the efficiency, reduce the 
cost, and improve the product of the Carnegie Company 



INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND ORGANIZATION 367 

has been adopted, until this great concern has raised the 
physical condition of its mills to a point which is unsur- 
passed." Dividends had never been considered by the 
management. Improvement had been the one thing thought 
of. During the years 1898 and 1899, the Carnegie Com- 
pany expended out of earnings upon new construction and 
betterments no less a sum than $20,000,000. The nature of 
this policy of the investment of earnings in improvements 
may be illustrated by a comparative statement of the equip- 
ment of the Homestead mills in 1890 and 1898: 

1890 

1. Two 5-ton Bessemer converters. 

2. Seven open-hearth furnaces — one 15-ton, four 20- 
ton, two 35-ton. 

3. One 28-inch blooming-mill. 

4. One 23-inch and one 33-inch train for structural 
shapes. 

5. One lo-inch mill. 

6. One 32-inch slabbing-mill for rolling heavy ingots. 

7. One 120-inch plate-mill. 

Annual capacity, 295,000 tons. 



1. Two lo-ton Bessemer converters, one 12-ton. 

2. Thirty open-hearth furnaces — one 12-ton, six 25-ton, 
eight 35-ton and fifteen 40-ton. 

3. One 28-inch and one 38-inch blooming-mill. 

4. One 23-inch and one 33-inch train for structural 
shapes. 

5. One lo-inch mill. 

6. One 32-inch slabblng-mill. 

7. One 40-inch cogging-mill. 

8. One 35-inch beam-mill. 

9. One 119-inch plate-mill. 

10. One 3,000 ton and one 10,000-ton hydraulic press. 



368 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

II. Steel foundry, press shop, and machine shop. 
Annual capacity, 2,260,000 tons. 

The management of the Carnegie Company represented 
the acme of productive efficiency. Every officer had risen 
from the ranks by dint of compelling merit. Every head 
of a department had an interest in the business apart from 
his salary. Trade unionism had been banished from the 
mills in 1892, and the workmen were spurred on by high 
wages and the promise of advancement. No visitor to the 
Carnegie mills could fail to be impressed with the intensity 
of the effort and the strained attention evident in every 
department. None but the strongest could stand the ter- 
rific pace. Breakdowns were frequent at thirty-five, men 
were old at forty-five. The famous '' iron-clad agree- 
ment," it has been claimed, was designed to dispense peace- 
ably with partners who had outlived their usefulness. Not 
only was money lavishly spent on salaries and wages, but 
large sums were paid for information. 

E. S. Meade: Trust Finance, pp. 198-211. D. Appleton 
and Co., New York, 1903. 

Questions 

At the time of the formation of the United States Steel Com- 
pany (the "Steel Trust") what types of manufacture did the Car- 
negie Steel Company engage in? What lines of steel manufacture 
did it leave to other firms? How had the Carnegie Company pro- 
vided for a sure supply of raw materials and for transportation facili- 
ties? What advantage had the Carnegie Company over competing 
concerns in the location of its plants? Was this the result of 
chance? How had the equipment and the employes of the Car- 
negie Company been organized with a view to their highest possible 
efficiency? Notice the increase in equiprrient and the great increase 
in output between 1890 and 1898. 



INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND ORGANIZATION 369 

LX 

CAUSES OF TRUSTS 

The Industrial Commission was created by Act of Congress in 
1898, its membership being composed of five Senators, five Con- 
gressmen, and nine other persons selected by the President and 
the Senate. Between 1900 and 1902, it published 19 volumes of 
reports on various industrial topics such as trusts, labor prob- 
lems, agriculture, transportation and immigration. The ex- 
tract below is taken from a report of the commission summa- 
rizing its conclusions as to the causes of the growth of trusts in 
the United States. 

Causes of Combination: 

It is clearly the opinion of most of those associated v^ith 
industrial combinations that the chief cause of their forma- 
tion has been excessive competition. Naturally all business 
men desire to make profits, and they find their profits fall- 
ing ofif first through the pressure of lowering prices of their 
competitors. The desire to lessen too vigorous competition 
naturally brings them together. 

A second way of increasing profits is through the vari- 
ous economies which they think will come by consolidation. 
The special details of these savings will be given under an- 
other heading. 

One or two of the witnesses considered the protective 
tariflf as the chief cause of the trusts. They urged that 
high tariflf duties, by shutting out foreign competition, make 
it easier for our manufacturers to combine to control prices, 
and they think that the experience of the last few years 
justifies the assertion. Likewise, they say, through the high 
profits that come from the exclusion of foreign competition 
by the tariflf, capital has been attracted into industries here 
to so great an extent and with the expectation of so high 
profits that home competition has been unduly stimulated, 
thereby leading to the formation of combinations. 
. 25 



370 READINGS IN A^TERICAN HISTORY 

Some other witnesses believe that the tariff, while not 
the most important cause, has, nevertheless, some influence 
toward encouraging combinations ; while one witness, Mr. 
La Taste, believes that the monopoly of natural opportuni- 
ties, under our present system of taxation, is to be con- 
sidered the fundamental cause. 

Nearly all of the witnesses who have considered excess- 
ive competition as the chief cause do not agree that the 
tariff is to be looked upon as a cause, nor as a rule do they 
concede that those engaged in the organization of com- 
binations have any intention of securing a complete 
monopoly. It is, of course, true that the restriction of com- 
petition is a step toward monopoly, but competition has 
not been suppressed entirely, and they do not believe that 
monopoly has been or can be secured. In most cases they 
would deny that a monopoly was in any respect desirable. 
The Savings of Combination: 

(a) Among the economies that are generally recognized 
as resulting from combination is the regulation of produc- 
tion. Where there is no general understanding among pro- 
ducers there is a strong tendency to overproduction, so that 
markets become demoralized and competition excessive. 
The combination is able so to fit the supply to the demand 
that while customers can be fully supplied at reasonable 
prices there is no danger of overproduction. It is thus a 
means of preventing panics and periods of depression. 

(b) Closely aUied with this adaptation of supply to de- 
mand is the advantage that comes from the possibility of 
carrying much smaller stocks of goods. This saves not 
merely the investment of capital, but also interest on run- 
ning capital, insurance, storage charges, shop-work charges, 
etc. 

(c) This same control of production enables the com- 
bination to keep its factories running full time, thus keep- 
ing labor fully employed. It has been found in several 
special cases that the percentage saved in the cost of pro- 
duction in the rubber industry by running a factory full 



INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS AND ORGANIZATION 371 

time instead of half time was from 4 to 8 per cent. In 
other cases it is doubtless more. 

(d) When a large proportion of an industry is under 
the control of one central management, it becomes essential 
to success that the various products be standardized. In 
this way the quality of goods can be made much more uni- 
form than would otherwise be the case, and its excellence 
can be guaranteed. Furthermore the number of styles of 
goods can regularly be very much reduced, thus lessening 
the cost of manufacture and effecting a saving in the 
amount of stock that needs to be carried. 

(e) The same influence leads to the larger use of special 
machinery, and to the adaptation of the workmen and the 
superintendents to the special departments for which they 
are best suited. In many cases through this specialization 
more can be saved than through the introduction even of 
new machines. In one case, in connection with the manu- 
facture of rubber goods, as much as 20 per cent, of the 
cost was saved by thus specializing the machinery. Mr. 
Schwab, president of the United States Steel Corporation, 
mentions the specialization and adaptation of material as a 
great saving in the steel industry. 

(f) The specialization mentioned above saves also ma- 
terially through a lessening in the cost of superintendence, 
which is sometimes very large. Likewise the increased 
efficiency often enables the manufacturer to lessen the num- 
ber of laborers per unit of product. 

(g) There are also noteworthy savings along somewhat 
similar lines in connection with the cost of selling; for ex- 
ample, the number of traveling men can often be greatly 
reduced. In the case of the United States Rubber Com- 
pany there was a saving of 25 per cent in the number of 
traveling salesmen. Substantial economies can be made 
through direct sales instead of through middlemen ; and the 
cost of advertising can be materially lessened, owing to 
more intelligent distribution and method of advertising. 
Advertising in a large way permits also the securing of 



2;j2. READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

more favorable rates. The popularity of a trademark can 
be more readily secured when the sales are direct. 

(h) There is often through combination a better knowl- 
edge and control of credit conditions, so that bad debts 
may be guarded against. During the year 1890 the United 
States Rubber Company, doing a business of about $28,- 
000,000, lost less than $1,000 by bad debts. The loss by 
the separate companies on that volume of business would 
have averaged doubtless over $100,000 per year. 

(i) Of course there is a very material saving in many 
instances through shipping goods to customers from the 
nearest plants. In this matter of freight saving also the 
large combinations can often supply themselves with storage 
facilities at central points and then ship their goods in large 
quantities during the seasons of the year when freight rates 
are lowest, thus often securing the advantages of water 
transportation which otherwise would not be available. 

In the case of local combinations, for example, the Cleve- 
land and Sandusky Brewing Company, a similar saving is 
made in the cost of delivery of goods. Before the com- 
bination was made each brewery delivered beer to every 
part of the city. Now each brewery delivers to the portion 
near which it is situated. 

Report of the Industrial Commission, Vol. 13, p. V-VII. 
Washington, Gov. Printing Office, 1901. 

Questions 

How had excessive competition caused the formation of trusts? 
In what way could the tariff be considered a cause of the growth of 
trusts? What poHtical party holds this belief to-day? Name the 
economies that naturally result from combination and the elimina- 
tion of competition. Whatever we may think of the general 
statements of the report, the causes operating to bring about con- 
solidation are doubtless here put strongly. Whether a large pro- 
portion of the good results expected have been realized is open to 
question. 



PART XII 

NATIONAL PROBLEMS 

LXI 

GREAT WEALTH AND DISCONTENT 

Until 1860-65, the national wealth had been widely dif- 
fused. After 1865 it began to be gathered into great for- 
tunes. . . . Merely as an interesting fact, therefore, it 
would be worth recording that the rapidity with which 
wealth had grown was balanced by the startling inequality 
of its distribution. To a very large extent this inequality 
represented a natural inequality in the brain power which 
exists among individuals. It was a tribute, in part, to 
efficiency of organization and to that superior ability which 
in the world of finance is comparable to a like ability in the 
sphere of military affairs. The military analogy is, indeed, 
a very apt one. Translate the strategic maxims of Na- 
poleon into the language of finance, and there is formulated 
a system quite as axiomatic as was his, because it expresses 
fundamental truths. Napoleon's battles were won by a 
tenacious adherence to a few simple principles. " Always 
have your forces so distributed," said the Emperor, " as to 
make it possible for you to direct all of them at once upon 
the weak point in the enemy^s position." This implies 
singleness of command, clearness of design, and concen- 
tration of power. When, therefore, immensity of force is 
directed by supreme ability centered in one dominant mind, 
there is effected a combination which is practically irre- 
sistible. And the same thing is true with regard to money. 
When milHons are united and massed, and when their con- 
centrated power is wielded by one far-seeing brain, they 

27Z 



374 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

will draw to themselves swiftly and surely other millions 
and will justify the proverb which declares that wealth 
breeds wealth. An anecdote current in 1902 elucidates one 
of the causes of American success in financial manage- 
ment. 

Not long ago, the head of an American corporation 
walked into the London offices of a great concern which 
represented similar interests in England. The American 
came unknown and unannounced. After waiting for half 
an hour in an ante-room he was admitted to the presence of 
the manager, and came at once to business with an uncon- 
cern of manner in striking contrast to English ways 

" Now see here," he began, without any preliminary 
talk : " I've looked into your concern and know all about 
it, and just what it's worth, and I've come here to buy you 
out." 

The Englishman gasped and stared at what appeared to 
him the extreme assurance and even insolence of his visi- 
tor. 

" Yes," continued the American, swinging his leg easily 
over the arm of the chair ; " I know all about your business. 
It isn't worth a million pounds, but I'm prepared to offer 
you that, if you'll close the thing right here." 

** And when would you be ready to pay over the million 
pounds ? " asked the Englishman, with what he regarded as 
elaborate irony. 

The American looked at his watch. 

''Well," he said, "it's rather late to-day; but if you'll 
have the papers drawn, I'll turn the million over to you 
to-morrow afternoon." 

When men by temper and training come to possess the 
ability to do large things in this direct and simple way, they 
have an immense advantage over those who can act only in 
committees, or boards, or companies, and they will in- 
evitably dominate them and use them quite at will. Hence 
it was that the concentration of wealth in the United States 
between 1885 and 1905, being directed in a swift, effective 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 375 

and overwhelming fashion, seemed to promise the com- 
mercial and financial conquest of the world. It was this 
which dazzled for a while the imagination of the American 
people. They had begun to make other nations pay tribute 
to the Republic. They confidently looked forward to a 
time when, as a certain Senator somewhat extravagantly 
phrased it, both the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans would 
commercially become " American lakes," traversed by 
American fleets and washing no shores that were not trib- 
utary to the United States. . . . 

That the rapid growth of wealth and its unequal dis- 
tribution w^ere known in many cases to be the result of in- 
equality before the law, explains the discontent which 
throve among the American people during the years with 
which this narrative has to do. Americans are singularly 
free from envy. That some men should grow rich w'hile 
others remained poor was not in itself a cause of dissatis- 
faction. Great fortunes honestly acquired were rightly 
held to be an honor to their possessors, because they were 
the concrete evidence of ability, economy, and perseverance. 
But, on the other hand, the fortunes that had been gained 
through illicit favor, in defiance of the law and by the de- 
bauchery of those w^ho had been chosen to make and to 
administer the law — these roused a widespread and 
steadily deepening resentment. Conspicuous instances of 
this lawless wealth have already in these pages been sufifi- 
ciently pointed out in discussing the growth of Trusts, and 
the discrimination by railways in the making of their rates 
and in the stifling of competition by other means in flag- 
rant violation of both the statutes and the common law of 
the land. For twenty years the courts had been practically 
impotent to check and to destroy the power of monopoly. 
Americans began to feel that the orderly processes of the 
law were unavailing. Petty criminals, underlings, and 
agents were sometimes punished ; yet no great criminal of 
the wealthy class had ever been sent to prison, but was at 
most permitted to escape on the payment of a fine which 



2;j6 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

was to him of no more consequence than the copper coin 
which one tosses to an urchin in the streets. State after 
State adopted legislation intended to be remedial or puni- 
tive, yet this practically accomplished nothing ; and some of 
these very States, notably New Jersey, most inconsistently 
framed their corporation laws in such a way as actually to 
encourage the increase of oppressive combinations. The 
feeling of helpless rage which spread through the West in 
1892 had permeated the entire country in 1905, and had 
prepared the minds of the people for measures far more 
drastic than any which had hitherto been known in the Re- 
public. 

H. T. Peck: Twenty Years of the Republic, p. 724. 
Dodd, Mead and Co., New York, 1907. 

Questions 

When did the accumulation of great fortunes in America begin? 
What qualities in individual men secured them? Illustrate. What 
caused the dissatisfaction with this state of affairs? Was this dis- 
satisfaction entirely due to the jealousy of those less fortunate in 
amassing great wealth? What types of legislation did the discontent 
introduce? Were they successful? The anecdote m this selection 
is, we imagine, a great exaggeration of what may have occurred. 



LXII 
IMMIGRATION 

Immigration to-day presents one of the broadest problems in 
our national life. The American laborer encounters competi- 
tion from unskilled immigrants. The growing up of great 
national colonies of immigrants in our big cities reminds us that 
an increasing proportion of our population does not naturally in- 
herit the ideals that we consider American. A slight under- 
standing of one or two phases of the problem at least, may be 
gained from the following selection. 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 377 

The year 1905 broke all previous records in the history 
of immigration to the United States, the number of immi- 
grants recorded for the twelve months ending June 30 be- 
ing 1,026,499. But the numerical strength of the move- 
ment was not its most serious aspect : the character of im- 
migration has undergone radical changes in the past few 
years. Prior to 1880 three-fourths of all persons who mi- 
grated to America came from the Celtic and Teutonic coun- 
tries of northern and western Europe, mostly from the 
United Kingdom and Germany, while less than one per cent, 
came from Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Poland. 
About 1880 the numbers from the latter countries began, 
to increase, and assumed larger and larger proportions, 
until in 1905 the Slavic and Iberian countries of eastern 
and southern Europe furnished nearly three-fourths of the 
total. . . . 

The very high rate of illiteracy among immigrants from 
southeastern Europe, together with racial, social, religious, 
and political distinctions of a fundamental character, ren- 
der them less assimilable, and therefore less desirable, than 
immigrants from northern Europe. 

The stream of immigration always flows towards the 
relatively prosperous country, and its volume is a fair 
gauge of economic and industrial conditions. The num- 
ber of immigrants to the United States did not reach the 
100,000 mark in any one year until 1842 when 104,565 
landed on our shores. By 1854, the number had risen to 
427,833 ; and in that year an anti-foreign agitation became 
a factor in American politics. The sudden increase was 
coincident with hard times in Ireland, revolution in Ger- 
many, and the development of the western country. The 
financial depression of 1857 and the outbreak of the Civil 
War reduced the number by 1862 to 72,183. The year 
1873 broke the record again, showing the entry of 459,803 
immigrants. The panic of that year, and the financial de- 
pression that followed reduced the number by 1878 to 
138,469. There was a sudden rise in 1880, and in 1882 



3/8 READINGS IN AiMERICAN HISTORY 

the number reached 788,992 a figure not equalled again 
for twenty-one years. The financial crisis of 1893 and the 
succeeding years of depression caused a drop to 229,299 by 
1898. Since that time there has been a rapid increase, un- 
til now over 1,000,000 aliens come annually to our 
shores. . . . 

The general prosperity of 'America is undoubtedly the 
most important cause of immigration, for most of the immi- 
grants come at the inducement of friends and relatives who 
have preceded them. Steamship agents testified in 190 1 
that from 40 to 55 per cent, of those who come to our 
shores have their passage prepaid by friends in this coun- 
try ; if to this be added those to whom money is sent from 
this side for the purchase of ticket abroad, the proportion 
taking passage at the expense of their friends would amount 
to about two-thirds of the whole. . . . 

The most serious social problem presented by the immi- 
gration of recent years is the tendency of the foreign-born 
to congregate in the slums of the larger cities : in 1900, 
while making up only a little over one-eighth of the total 
population of the United States, they formed one-fourth of 
the total population of the cities and a much larger propor- 
tion in many places ; thus, the foreign-born formed 47 per 
cent, of the population of Fall River, 39 per cent, of Duluth, 
37 per cent, of New York, 35 per cent, of Boston, 34 per 
cent, of San Francisco and Chicago. The tendency to 
congregate in the large cities is particularly marked among 
the Russians, Poles, Italians, and Irish. This accumulation 
of colonies in the great cities is the principal obstacle to 
the assimilation of immigrants, which is the great desidera- 
tum. If they could be distributed more evenly through- 
out the country, the process of Americanization would go 
on much faster. . . . 

After a careful study of the social and economic condi- 
tions surrounding the immigrants after settlement in Amer- 
ica, Professor Mayo-Smith came to the conclusion that the 
tendency to assimilation was inevitable and dominant. As 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 379 

he put it: "Owing to the unorganized character of the 
immigration; to the lack of poHtical and social connection 
between the immigrants and the home country; to the va- 
riety of elements which more or less neutralize one an- 
other; and to the powerful influence of the established in- 
stitutions — assimilation to the one type is the natural and 
almost inevitable result. ... It is not in unity of blood, 
but in unity of institutions and social habits and ideals that 
we are to seek that which we call nationality." 

J. H. Latane: America as a World Power, p. 285^. 
Harper and Brothers, New York, 1907. 

Questions 

What change has of late years come in the races from which our 
immigration comes? Show how immigration varies with the degree 
of our prosperity. How does immigration add to the population of 
our great cities? Are immigrants likely to retain their language and 
national habits permanently among us? 



LXIII 
THE CITY 

The author of the book from which the following extract is 
taken gives us a fascinating vision of the future city in the 
United States and of its problems. Some of his generalizations 
must, however, be approached with caution. The problem of 
the city is not so modern that it did not exist in Europe in the 
seventeenth century, although the need of a solution for it has 
been driven home to us by the vast increase in urban popula- 
tion that has come in recent years. While Mr. Howe has set 
before us graphically many of the forces at work on our civil- 
ization, he cannot do the impossible — he cannot name them all 
and estimate their comparative strength. Accordingly his fore- 
casts as to the future development of specific cities in the 
United States must be taken for what they are — prophecies. 



380 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

The Nezv Civilization. 

. . . The modern city marks a revolution — a revolution 
in industry, politics, society and life itself. Its coming 
has destroyed a rural society, whose making has occupied 
mankind since the fall of Rome. It has erased many of 
our most laborious achievements and turned to scrap many 
of our established ideas. . . . The city will no longer be 
an incidental problem. It has already become the problem 
of society and the measure of our civilization. 

The extent of this change is seen in the drift of popula- 
tion. ... In the United States we are so accustomed to 
an immense unoccupied western domain that the growth of 
our city population fails to impress us. In our thoughts, 
America is still an agricultural nation, and the city but an 
incident of our growth. But an examination of the census 
returns destroys this illusion. In 1800 but four per cent, 
of our population dwelt within city walls. By 1830 the 
percentage had crept up to six and seven-tenths. Thirty 
years later, at the outbreak of the Civil War, five millions, 
or sixteen and one-tenth per cent, of our people, were ur- 
ban dwellers. Since that time, the growth of industry, the 
expanding network of railways that has been woven across 
the face of the continent, the ever-increasing inflow of 
immigration, have raised this ratio to thirty-three per cent, 
of the whole. To-day, more than twenty-five millions of 
America's population dwell in cities of over 8,000 inhabi- 
tants, while nearly forty per cent, of the total reside in 
communities of over 4,000 people. In the older and more 
developed commonwealths of the East, the proportion of 
urban population is much higher. And it is in these states 
that we are to look for the real tendencies of our time. In 
Rhode Island eighty-one and two-tenths per cent, of the 
people dwell in cities, while Massachusetts has seventy-six 
per cent.. New York sixty-eight and one-half per cent.. 
New Jersey sixty-one and two-tenths per cent., and Con- 
necticut fifty-three and two-tenths per cent., of their popu- 
lation as urban dwellers. Even Illinois, the great prairie 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 381 

state of the central West, is nearly one-half urban, while in 
California over forty per cent, of the people live under city 
conditions. And this movement to the city is bound to con- 
tinue. The statistics of all countries demonstrate this fact. 
While the total population in America increased twenty and 
seven-tenths per cent, during the decade from 1890 to 1900, 
the urban population of the country increased thirty-seven 
per cent. 

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the City of Xew 
York contained more people within its jurisdiction than 
responded to the authority of the first President of the Re- 
public. In a hundred years' time it has become the second 
city in the world. In the magnitude of its undertakings, it 
is easily first. . . . The city's annual expenditures exceed 
$108,000,000. . . . The annual budget of the Japanese 
Empire is but $120,000,000; of the Turkish Empire but 
$80,000,000 and of Holland and Switzerland combined but 
$80,000,000. . . . 

... At no distant day, Xew York is destined to be the 
largest city on the globe. It is rapidly becoming the clear- 
ing-house of the world. It is bound to be the cosmopolis 
of finance, shipping, and the allied interests. It will be the 
distributing agency for the supplies of other nations, an 
immense warehouse where the East and the West, the 
North, and the South will meet in the exchange of their 
wares. . . . 

On a smaller scale, and in a sense tributary to Xew York, 
the cities of Boston, Philadelphia, Xew Orleans, San Fran- 
cisco, and Seattle will expand by the same forces ; only 
shipping and the distribution of commodities will be the 
agencies of their growth. By the time the United States 
has doubled its population, these cities will have quadrupled 
theirs. In like manner, Chicago and St. Louis will per- 
form for the central regions of America what X^ew York 
now does for the eastern seaboard. . . . 

To-day, steel is king, and iron, copper, coal, and oil are 
its handmaidens. Xature has exhausted her ingenuity in 



382 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

conjoining these great wealth producing agencies about the 
region of which [Pittsburg and Cleveland] are the centers. 
Already the city of Pittsburg, with its environs, has a popu- 
lation of nearly a million souls. The city of Cleveland has 
half that number. The valleys between these cities blaze 
for a hundred miles with blast furnaces, rolling mills, and 
foundries. In the Great Lakes region are found rich cop- 
per mines of which the Calumet and Hecla is chief. Iron 
ore is mined on the shores of Lake Superior by being 
scooped from the surface of the earth by steam-driven 
shovels, while natural gas, oil, and bituminous coal are dis- 
tributed in almost inexhaustible quantities in Pennsyl- 
vania, Ohio, and West Virginia. From mine to mill, the 
cost of transportation through the chain of Great Lakes 
has been reduced to the vanishing point. . . . 

Along with the great iron and steel industries go the 
lesser ones — the finishing processes, the machine and tool 
industries and the making of the great enginery, and new 
tools that are subjugating nature in the wild places of the 
earth to the domestic needs of man. Not only will the two 
cities of Pittsburgh and Cleveland become communities of 
two million inhabitants each, but the intervening region as 
well as the southern shore of Lake Erie will be one long 
succession of manufacturing towns like unto the midland 
cities of England. . . . 

Through the enlarging of trade connections from state 
to nation, and from the nation to the world at large, the 
great cities have become the counters across which com- 
modities are exchanged. Within a short hundred years the 
local fair, that Adam Smith described as prevailing in Eng- 
land prior to the industrial revolution, has become a world's 
fair, and barter, sale, and exchange are now performed by 
clearing-house agencies which are as infinitely delicate and 
myriad in their ramifications as the nervous system of the 
human body. And in this world movement, the city is the 
center. 

Along with the forces that have been enumerated are 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 383 

certain minor and, in a sense, more obvious ones which 
are drawing mankind to the city. The steam railway is 
being supplemented by the electric inter-urban line. It is a 
cheap form of transit, and has already developed into trunk- 
line connections with facilities for long-distance travel. 
Through these agencies, the city is being ruralized and the 
country is being urbanized. Thousands of men are now 
linked to the town for their livelihood, recreation, educa- 
tion, and interests, who a few years since were as hopelessly 
removed from these advantages as though they had resided 
a hundred miles away. At the same time an increasing 
number of people are drifting into the country, in order 
that they may escape the burdens of city life and at the 
same time enjoy the advantages which it offers. 

The City for the People. 

The city is not only the problem of our civilization ; it is 
the hope of the future. . . . 

... It is constantly taking on new activities and assum- 
ing new burdens. Everything tends to encourage this, 
while many things render it imperative. By necessity we 
are forced to meet the burdens of a complex life. We 
cannot live in close association without common activities, 
without abandoning some of our liberties to regulation. 
Not only do health, comfort, and happiness demand this, 
self -protection necessitates it. 

... A conscious housing policy will be adopted. The 
tenement will become habitable, comfortable, and safe. 
Cheap and rapid transit will lure the population from the 
crowded slum into smaller suburban centers. For the city 
of the future will cover a wide area. 

The same motives that have opened up breathing spots 
in the form of parks, as well as public baths and gym- 
nasiums, in the crowded quarters will, in time, lead to the 
establishment of city clubhouses, winter recreation centers, 
where such advantages as are now found in the social 
settlement will be offered. About these centers the life of 



384 READINGS IN AAIERICAN HISTORY 

the community will focus for study, play, recreation, and 
political activity. Here concerts, lectures, and human in- 
tercouse will be offered. A sense of the city as a home, as 
a common authority, a thing to be loved and cared for, 
will be developed. In the city club the saloon will find a 
rival. From such centres charity work wall be carried on. 
Here neglected children will be cared for, here the boys and 
girls will find an opportunity of escape from the street, and 
the mother and father a common meeting ground which is 
now denied them. . . . 

We have had our public schools for so long that we ac- 
cept them as a commonplace. But we do not appreciate 
that the high schools are raising millions of citizens to an 
educated estate which was known to but a limited number 
a few years ago. The effect of this infusion of culture 
into our life is beginning to make itself felt. And in the 
years to come, when education has, in fact, become com- 
pulsory, and the school age has been raised to a higher 
standard, the effect will be tremendous. Along with the 
schools go the public libraries. Branches and distributing 
agencies are extending their influence into every part of 
the city. Through them opportunity is offered for a con- 
tinuation of study, even after the door of the school has 
closed. . . . 

These are some of the things the new city will do. It 
will also care for the sick, as it now does in many cities, 
through district physicians or visiting nurses attached to 
the school departments. It will find work and maintain 
employment agencies. It will supervise factories, m.ills, and 
workshops. . . . 

We have already taken the first steps toward such an end. 
Many of these activities are already performed in many 
cities without exciting comment. . . . We are probably in 
but the beginning of this movement which aims to relieve 
the cost of city life, to enlarge the opportunities for happi- 
ness, and save the oncoming generation from some of the 
losses which the industrial city has exacted. 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 3^5 

F. C. Howe: The City the Hope of Democracy, pp. 
9-18 ; 280-288, passim. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 
1905. 

Questions 

Illustrate the tendency to the growth of cities in the United States ? 
In which States is it most marked? Explain how the task of gov- 
erning the city of New York is from some standpoints as vast as 
that of governing a great nation. What prediction does Air. Howe 
make for the future growth of the commercial cities of the country? 
What part of the United States does he predict will contain its manu- 
facturing cities? How does a massing of population necessitate 
careful supervision by the city government over details of the life 
of citizens that in smaller places may be left to individual regula- 
tion? What will be the way, according to the author, in which the 
modern city will approach the problem of the slum? The problem 
of public breathing places? Of affording an outlet for the social life 
of the community? Of increasing the efficiency of the schools? 



LXIV 
THE DIRECT PRIMARY 

In the later decades of the nineteenth century, 1880-1900, cor- 
rupt and " machine " methods in the conduct of elections 
aroused much discussion and awakened opposition. The intro- 
duction of the Australian ballot helped to cure some of the ir- 
regularities in the formal election ; but the nominating system 
remained unsatisfactory. Nominations were made by the cau- 
cus-convention system. Under this system the first step in the 
nomination of a party candidate was the holding of a caucus in 
a ward or township or other minor district ; though theoretically 
this caucus might be attended by any or all of the members of 
the party, it was commonly made up of a few practical poli- 
ticians, who might use their power corruptly or with entire dis- 
regard of any wishes save their own and those of the party 
leader. The caucus chose delegates to a convention which 
nominated candidates or chose delegates for some higher and 
more general convention. These conventions were, again, in 
26 



386 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

the hands of a few workers or leaders, who generally did as 
they wanted to. To say the least the convention was not an 
organ of popular government; practically the nominating sys- 
tem was in the hands, not of the people, but of a few persons. 
There thus arose the demand for the direct primary, i.e., for a 
primary election in which, under legal regulations, all the mem- 
bers of the party might choose their candidates for office. In 
the course of a few years — especially during the years from 
1895 to 1910 — this form of nomination was provided for in a 
large number of States. 

THE CAUCUS-CONVENTION SYSTEM 

A. The caucus, made up in theory of voters of the party. 

(i) In a township or a ward of a small city, put town- 
ship or ward officers in nomination. 
(2) Chose delegates to a convention: B (i) or (2). 

B. (i) City convention. Delegates named by caucuses 

nominated city officers. 
(2) County convention. Delegates named by caucuses 
(a) nominated county officers or (b) chose dele- 
gates to State convention, or (c) chose delegates 
to a Congressional district convention. 

C. Congressional convention. Delegates from county conven- 

tions nominated Congressman. 

D. State convention. Delegates from county conventions (a) 

nominated State officers or (b) chose delegates at 
large to national convention. 

E. National convention. Nominated president and vice-presi- 

dent. 

The selection given below is a strong argument for the direct 
primary. Perhaps it should be said, on the other side: (i) 
that this system of nomination is expensive; (2) that when 
there are several candidates for nomination to the same office, 
the person nominated may be the choice of only a decided 
minority of the voters; (3) that the system appears to have a 
tendency to break down the sense of party responsibility. Of 
these objections, however, possibly the first two apply, with even 
greater force, to the old system. 



I 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 387 

Experience with the Direct Primary in thirty-two states, 
where it is now being used in one form or other, shows 
that every good Direct Primary law, whether apphed to 
city, county, or state, must have the following five essen- 
tials : (i) It must be compulsory upon all parties; (2) 
the Australian Ballot must be used; (3) all primaries must 
be held under state regulations; (4) the state must bear 
the expense; (5) all parties must hold their primaries at 
the same place and time. Under a system of Direct 
Nominations, one of the registration days is set aside for 
the primary. The voter goes to the polls, registers, re- 
ceives a ballot containing a list of the candidates, and votes 
directly for the men of his choice. Nothing could be more 
simple in operation than this. It places in the hands of 
the voters the power to nominate their party-candidates, 
and in all sane governments that is where it should be 
placed. 

The real tests of any nominating system, however, are 
(i) the number of voters that take part in the primaries, 
and (2) the kind of candidates nominated. 

Under the caucus-system, no matter how highly legalized, 
the voters will not take part in making the nominations. 
They are not even interested, for in the caucuses they do 
not nominate candidates, they only elect delegates, and a 
delegate, no matter how honest he may be, cannot correctly 
represent the wishes of his constituents upon all, and quite 
often not even upon a small portion, of the candidates to 
be nominated in the convention. Do the facts uphold the 
argument? Take the caucus-system at its best and what 
do we find? In San Francisco, Xew York City and Cook 
County, Illinois, which places since 1901, 1900, and 1899^ 
respectively have had the most highly legalized and re- 
formed caucus-systems in the United States, an average of 
but 39 per cent, of the voters of San Francisco, 41 per cent. 

1 This was before the introduction of the direct primary into 
Illinois. 



388 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

of those In New York, and 38 per cent, of those in Cook 
County, Illinois, take part in making nominations. If but 
this small number of people attend the caucuses when such 
great care is taken to protect the voice and the will of the 
people, what a handful must turn out in those states in 
which few if any legal regulations are thrown around the 
nominating machinery ! Under the caucus-system the re- 
sulting government cannot represent the will of the ma- 
jority. It can only represent the will of the minority, and 
it is to this small minority (composed though it usually is 
of men who are in politics for what there is in it) that our 
officials are directly responsible, not only for their nomina- 
tion but also for their subsequent election. 

On the other hand, it cannot be denied that the Direct 
Primary greatly increases the attendance at the primaries. 
The reason for this is that it gives the voters a real voice 
in making party nominations. They can express their 
choice upon all candidates from governor down to justice 
of the peace, and by this means are able to exert a direct in- 
fluence upon the final results. 

In Cleveland, Ohio, under the old caucus-system only 
5,000 voters took part in nominating the Republican candi- 
dates for city offices in 1892, but in 1893, when they used 
one of the most poorly-framed and extra-legal primary sys- 
tems imaginable, over 14,000 Republicans turned out. This 
number increased to 23,000 in 1896, to 28,000 in 1899, ^^^ 
to 31,000 in 1901, the vote at the primaries during these 
years averaging more than 95 per cent, of the vote cast by 
the Republicans at the subsequent elections. In Crawford 
county, Pennsylvania, where the Direct Primary has been 
used since i860, the average attendance at the primaries 
has been more than 73 per cent. In the 25th Congressional 
District, where the system has been used since 1890, "JJ 
per cent of the voters have made the nominations. . . . 

. . . These figures show most conclusively that the diffi- 
culty is not the apathy of the people. Their civic patrio- 
tism is as strong as it has ever been in years past. They 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 389 

are interested in the government and will attend the pri- 
maries, if they are but given the opportunity to directly 
nominate their party candidates. The difficulty lies with 
the caucus-system. It is indirect and inefficient. 

Now let us see if there are any reasons why better men 
should be nominated under the Direct Primary than under 
the caucus and convention system. 

In the first place it must be conceded that the majority 
of the people are honest and that they want good govern- 
ment and honest officials. Under the Direct Primary they 
can make this desire felt more effectively. They can exer- 
cise two vetoes upon any attempt to foist bad candidates 
upon the public, once at the primary, and again at the elec- 
tion. But under the caucus-system they have no choice at 
the caucuses, while upon election it is usually a choice be- 
tween two evils, between two machine-made candidates, 
and this is one reason why there is such an appallingly large 
stay-at-home vote upon election day. 

In the second place, who is it that so bitterly antagonizes 
the Direct Primary ? Most assuredly it is not the people ! 
It is the same class of men that twenty years ago fought 
the introduction of the Australian ballot! . . . Why is it 
that the politicians have suddenly become so solicitous about 
the welfare of the public, claiming, as they do, that the in- 
troduction of the Direct Primary would be detrimental to 
the best interests of the people? Why is it that they fight 
it so strenuously? It is because they realize that they can- 
not control the seventy or eighty per cent, of the voters who 
turn out to the primaries as they dictate to the twenty per 
cent, who attend the caucuses. . . . The Direct Primary in- 
troduces '' the principle of free, open competition, where 
before all was secrecy, scheming and log-rolling. It en- 
ables any man to become a candidate without currying fa- 
vor with the boss, and the ring by methods which trench 
upon his self-respect." The natural result is that better 
men come out for the nomination under the Direct Primary 
than under the caucus-system. . . , 



390 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

Ira Cross : Direct Primaries In The Arena Vol. XXXV, 
p. 587, June, 1906. Published in The Primer of Direct 
Legislation by Wm. H. Plunkett, Trenton, N. J. 

Questions 

What five essentials are there to a good primary law? Why will 
voters not attend caucus primaries ? How has the adoption of direct 
primaries increased the turnout of voters over that usual at the cau- 
cus primaries? Why should the nomination of better men be ex- 
pected under the direct primary? Why do politicians oppose it? 
Do you suppose that all who oppose the direct primary do it from 
corrupt motives? Do you see that the success of any system must 
depend on the interest of the people on their readiness to participate, 
and on the honesty with which the machinery is used? 



LXV 
INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM AND RECALL 

Because of a more or less general feeling that State legisla- 
tures did not properly carry out popular desires and because 
of charges, not unfrequently made and too often true, that 
individual officers were untrustworthy, there came a de- 
mand, in the latter part of the last century and the early 
part of the present century, for sweeping and drastic meas- 
ures of reform, which would " restore government to the peo- 
ple." The most advanced measures that were advocated were 
the Initiative, Referendum, and Recall; they are intended to 
give the people opportunity : ( i ) to introduce and pass upon 
legislative acts; (2) to vote upon acts passed by the legislature 
and to reject them if they choose; (3) to remove from office 
any official without waiting till the expiration of his term. 
The excellence of these means or methods of popular govern- 
ment are by no means universally admitted, though they have 
in one form or another been provided for in several States. 
Against the Initiative and Referendum, it is said that after the 
first flush of interest in the new devices the people will not 
take the necessary interest, that the people as a whole cannot 
take the time to study complicated matters of legislation, that 
the State legislatures will by this process be deprived of a 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 39^ 

sense of responsibility, and that any well governed State must 
have a stable and responsible center. The argument against the 
Recall is that it diminishes again proper feeling of official re- 
sponsibility, that the office holder is made timid and hesitates to 
perform evident duty, if there is apparent popular disapproval 
though the disapproval may be really temporary. It is also 
said that the office holder may be subjected to pressure by 
sinister interests powerful enough to stir up discontent. 

The argument in behalf of the wisdom and utility of these 
reforms rests chiefly on general belief in the capacity of the 
people and on the belief, not that we have had too much, but that 
we have had too little democracy: if we are to do the things 
we have to do, we must give the people at large a wider and 
stronger hold upon government. 

The following extract gives some of the principal details 
which the laws of Oregon provide for carrying out the pro- 
cesses of Initiative, Referendum, and Recall. 

Oregon's next step in popular government was the adop- 
tion of the initiative and referendum amendment to the 
Constitution, which amendment was adopted in June, 1902, 
by a vote of 62,024 to 5,668. It provides that legislative 
authority shall be vested in a Legislative Assembly, but that 
the people reserve to themselves the power to propose laws 
and amendments to the Constitution and to enact or re- 
ject the same at the polls independent of the Legislative 
Assembly, and also reserve power to approve or reject at 
the polls any act of the Legislature. An initiative petition 
must be signed by eight per cent, of the legal voters as 
shown by the vote for Supreme Judge at the last preceding 
general election, and filed with the Secretary of State not 
less than four months before the election. A referendum 
petition ^ need be signed by only five per cent, of the voters 
and filed with the Secretary of State within ninety days 
after final adjournment of the Legislature which passed the 

1 A petition from a part of the voters proposing a new law and 
demanding that it be submitted to the voters for acceptance or 
rejection. 



392 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

bill on which the referendum is demanded. The Legisla- 
ture may itself refer to the people any act passed by it. 
The veto power of the Governor does not extend to any 
measure referred to the people. 

In addition to the publicity incident to the circulation of 
the petitions, the law provides that the Secretary of State 
shall, at the expense of the State, mail to every registered 
voter in the State a printed pamphlet containing a true 
copy of the title and text of each measure to be submitted 
to the people, and the proponents and opponents of the law 
have the right to insert in said pamphlet, at the actual cost 
to themselves of paper and printing only, such arguments 
as they see fit to make. These pamphlets must be mailed 
not later than fifty-five days before a general election and 
twenty days before a special election. . . . 

The final step in the establishment of popular government 
in Oregon was the adoption of the recall amendment to the 
Constitution, which was adopted in 1908 by a vote of 
58,381 to 31,002. Under this amendment any public of- 
ficer may be recalled by the filing of a petition signed by 
twenty-five per cent, of the number of electors who voted 
in his district in the preceding election. The petition must 
set forth the reasons for the recall, and if the officer does 
not resign within five days after the petition is filed a 
special election must be ordered to be held within twenty 
days to determine whether the people will recall such of- 
ficer. On the ballot at such election the reasons for de- 
manding the recall of said officer may be set forth in not 
more than 200 words. His justification of his course in 
office may be set forth in a like number of words. He re- 
tains his office until the results of the special election have 
been officially declared. No petition can be circulated 
against any officer until he has held office six months, ex- 
cept that in the case of a member of the State Legislature 
it may be filed at any time after five days from the begin- 
ning of the first session after his election. At the special 
election the candidate receiving the highest number of votes 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 393 

is declared elected. The special election is held at public 
expense, but a second recall petition cannot be filed against 
an officer unless the petitioners first pay the entire expense 
of the first recall election. 

Jonathan Bourne, Jr. : Popular Government in Oregon 
in The Outlook, Vol. XCVI, pp. 322-330, passim. 1910. 

Questions 

What statement did the amendment to the constitution of Oregon, 
adopted in June 1902, make as to where the legislative power of the 
State is vested? What percentage of the voters must sign an initi- 
ative petition? A referendum petition? Can the legislature, without 
a petition, refer an act? Can the Governor veto an act passed by the 
people? What is the publicity pamphlet? How many signatures are 
necessary on a petition for a recall election? What publicity is given 
the arguments for and against the recall of an officer? What are 
the restrictions on the free use of the recall? 



LXVI 

A PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN 

The extract gives us some idea of the activities of campaign 
committees in a presidential campaign. It describes the work 
of the party management in 1896, when the contest seemed to 
require argument and information on the issues involved. More 
money was probably expended in this campaign than in any 
other before or since. See the next selection for estimates of 
the campaign funds of various presidential years. The methods 
of campaigning are representative of the campaign methods 
employed by the national committee in conducting campaigns of 
recent years. 

Since the beginning of the campaign the Republican 
National Committee has issued the astounding total of over 
two hundred millions of copies of documents. There were 
also issued, under the direction of the same committee, 



394 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

about fifty million copies of documents from the head- 
quarters of the Republican Congressional Campaign Com- 
mittee at Washington. All this work has been done 
through the Bureau of Publication and Printing. . . . 
There have been prepared more than 275 pamphlets and 
leaflets, besides scores of posters, sheets of cartoons, in- 
scriptions and other matter touching on the various phases 
of the campaign issues. . . . The distribution of these docu- 
ments was generally made through the state central com- 
mittees. About 20,000 express packages of documents 
were shipped, nearly 5,000 freight packages, and probably 
half a million packages by mail. These documents were 
printed in German, French, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Nor- 
wegian, Finnish, Dutch, and Hebrew, as well as in English. 
The duties of the editorial department of the Republican 
Literary Bureau at Chicago did not end with the prepara- 
tion of the many documents to which allusion has been 
made, but some notion of the extent of those duties may be 
had when the fact is stated that a preferred list of country 
newspapers, with an aggregate weekly circulation of 
1,650,000, received three and a half columns of specially 
prepared matter every week ; another list of country news- 
papers, with an aggregate weekly circulation of about 
1,000,000, received plate matter; three special classes of 
country weekly and daily papers were supplied with state- 
ments aggregating about 3,000,000 copies every week, and 
lastly, a special class of country newspapers received 
" ready prints " — the entire weekly circulation being about 
4,000,000 copies. Hundreds of other newspapers depended 
in a large measure for their political matter during the 
campaign upon the Publication and Printing Bureau and 
were circulated under the direction of this bureau. It is a 
safe estimate that every week 5,000,000 families received 
newspapers of various kinds containing political matter 
furnished by this bureau, — probably three times the aggre- 
gate in volume and influence of any newspaper work ever 
before conducted by a national political committee. 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 395 

The Republican Committee also made large use of politi- 
cal posters, probably 500 being circulated under the direc- 
tion of the Publication and Printing Bureau. The most 
popular poster sent out from Chicago was the five-colored, 
single-sheet lithograph so widely circulated at the St. 
Louis convention, bearing a portrait of Mr. McKinley with 
the inscription underneath, " The Advance Agent of Pros- 
perity." The number of copies of this poster circulated is 
said to have been almost beyond computation or comprehen- 
sion. Another poster which had an immense run was in 
plain black and bore the title, '' The Real Issue." It 
represented McKinley addressing a multitude of laborers 
in front of factories, declaring that it was better to open 
the mills of the United States than the mints, while Mr. 
Bryan, on the other side in front of the United States mint, 
was welcoming the people of all races with their silver bul- 
lion for free coinage. The great volumes of factory smoke 
and the throng of eager workmen on McKinley's side 
were in strong contrast with the group of foreigners dump- 
ing their silver in front of the Bryan mints. . . . 

The work of the congressional campaign committees has 
been far more important this year than ever before. The 
Republican Committee, under the chairmanship of the Hon. 
J. W. Babcock of Wisconsin, has been hard at work since 
early in June, and, like the National Committee at Chicago, 
it has broken its own record. The committee has printed 
23 different documents. Of a single speech in Congress, 
that delivered by Representative McCleary of Minnesota 
in the House last February in reply to his colleague. Repre- 
sentative Towne, the committee has issued 2,500,000 copies. 
Another popular money document issued by the committee 
was Representative Babcock's speech on the history of 
money and financial legislation in the United States. In 
the list of pamphlets sent out by the committee were 
speeches by Senator Sherman, Mr. Blaine, Representative 
Dingley, Speaker Reed, and others. The committee did 
not restrict itself to the distribution of Congressional 



396 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

speeches, but chose such other ammunition as seemed 
adopted for the purpose in view. A pamphlet of forty 
pages was prepared, deahng with the silver question in a 
conversational way, and this, although one of the longest, 
proved to be one of the most popular documents sent out. 
The silver question was not treated wholly to the exclusion 
of the tariff in these documents, but in the latter weeks of 
the campaign it was found that the demand for tariff 
literature gradually increased, and a large proportion of 
the documents distributed from Washington dealt with that 
subject. 

The distribution of Republican literature from New 
York City was placed in the hands of the American Pro- 
tective Tariff* League. . . . Some twenty millions of docu- 
ments were sent out from the headquarters in West 
Twenty-third Street, New York City, to points east and 
north of the Ohio River. . . . Each Congressional district 
in the territory covered was assigned a pro rata quota of 
documents, and additional shipments were made from time 
to time as required. The League's own work of editing 
and printing material for campaign purposes was done in 
a most systematic and admirable manner. . . . 

Considering the remarkable expenditures for the dis- 
semination of argument by means of the printed page, the 
poster, and the cartoon, it might have been supposed that 
in this campaign oratory would have had but a minor 
part. Then, too, the economic and statistical problems of 
a nation's currency have not usually lent themselves with 
grace to the fiery utterances of the political orator. But 
in this respect also the present year's campaigning has been 
exceptional. The oratorical powers of the opposing can- 
didates had not a little to do with the winning of each 
nomination — in the one case directly, in the other just as 
truly if less conspicuously. Mr. Bryan set his own pace 
in his Chicago convention speech. Mr. McKinley was 
known at the start as one of the greatest campaign ora- 
tors of his time. Neither of these men could be forced to 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 397 

obey the tradition which required silence of presidential 
candidates. 

Mr. Bryan's speechmaking record has been the most 
wonderful one in the whole history of American presiden- 
tial campaigns. Poor Horace Greeley's famous tour in 
1872 and Mr. Blaine's extended journeyings in 1884 are 
made to seem insignificant by comparison. On the night 
before election, if present plans are carried out, Mr. Bryan 
will have made about four hundred reported speeches in 
twenty-nine states. No previous candidate for the presi- 
dency ever attempted such a feat as this. Day after day 
this speech-making has gone on — much of it from the rear 
platforms of railway trains, while the telegraph and the 
daily newspaper have carried the speaker's utterances 
everywhere. Here again must be considered the match- 
less service of the press, without which the orator's words 
could reach but a limited number. 

But for Mr. McKinley too, this has been a speechmaking 
campaign. He has remained at his home in Canton, but 
auditors have come to him from far and near. There is 
a precision, a fixed adherence to schedule, in the arrange- 
ments for receiving and addressing delegations at Canton 
which is wholly lacking in the Bryan " steeple chasing " 
programme. Mr. McKinley's speeches have been prepared 
with care and fully reported by the press. 

W. B. Shaw : Methods and Tactics of the Campaign in 
The Reviezv of Reviews, Vol. XIV, pp. 554-559, passim. 
New York, 1896. 

Note. — The National Campaign Committee of the party is a com- 
mittee of one member for each State of the Union elected by the 
State delegation to the national convention. 

The Congressional campaign committee is chosen by the party 
members in Congress. 

Questions 

How many documents were circulated by the Republican committee 
in the campaign of 1896? What was the number of newspaper 



398 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

readers probably reached by material from the Literary Bureau? 
What types of political posters were used? Describe the work of 
the Congressional committee. What was the type of material it 
dispersed? Describe the speech-making activities of the two can- 
didates. Does this kind of a " campaign of education " seem to you 
desirable? 

LXVII 

PUBLICITY OF CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS 

Demand for publicity of campaign expenditures and for re- 
strictions on the use of money in campaigns were the result of 
the general interest in political reform characteristic of the 
early twentieth century. It is not enough to forbid expendi- 
tures of large sums; the law cannot be enforced unless there is 
some way of knowing how much is spent. Moreover in a free 
government a great deal depends on intelligent public senti- 
ment; often the severest punishment is public disapproval. 

The manoeuvring for position between the parties in 
1908 which resulted in the voluntary acceptance by each 
of high standards of publicity is too fresh in the pubHc 
mind to require rehearsal here. For the first time in the 
history of presidential elections some definite information 
was made available regarding campaign finances. The 
Republican National Committee reported contributions of 
$1,035,368.27. This sum, however, does not include $620,- 
150 collected in the several states by the finance commit- 
tees of the Republican National Committee and turned 
over by them to their respective state committees. The 
Democratic National Committee reported contributions 
amounting to $620,644.77. The list of contributors to the 
Republican National Fund contained 12,330 names. The 
Democratic National Committee filed *' a list of over 25,- 
000 names representing over 100,000 contributors who con- 
tributed through newspapers, clubs, solicitors, and other 
organizations, whose names are on file in the office of the 
chairman of the Democratic National Committee at Buf- 
falo." 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 399 

On many points, unfortunately, the two reports, while 
definite to a degree hitherto unknown, are not strictly com- 
parable. Some species of " uniform accounting " appli- 
cable to this subject is manifestly necessary before any de- 
tailed investigation can be undertaken. One big fact stands 
out with sufficient clearness, however, namely that the na- 
tional campaign of 1908 was waged at a money cost far 
below that of the three preceding campaigns. 

Basing his estimate upon what is said to have been spent 
in 1896, 1900, and 1904, Mr. F. A. Ogg placed the total 
cost of a presidential election to both parties, including the 
state and local contests occurring at the same time, at 
$15,000,000. One-third to one-half of this enormous sum, 
in his opinion, must be attributed to the presidential cam- 
paign proper. Compared with this estimate from five to 
seven and a half millions the relatively modest total of 
something more than two and a quarter millions shown by 
the figures of 1908 must be counted a strong argument in 
favor of publicity. 

The most important single issue raised by the policies 
of the two parties during the last presidential campaign 
was that of publicity before or after election. Early in 
the campaign the Democratic National Committee de- 
cided to publish on or before October 15th all individual 
contributions in excess of $100; contributions received sub- 
sequent to that date to be published on the day of their re- 
ceipt. Following the principle of the New York law both 
parties made post-election statements. It is manifest that 
complete statements of expenditures, or for that matter of 
contributions as well, can be made only after election. 
Every thorough provision for publicity must, therefore, 
require post-election reports. Shall preliminary statements 
also be required? As against the latter it is urged that 
contributors whose motives are of the highest character 
will be deterred by the fear of savage partisan criticism. 
If publicity is delayed until after the election campaign 
bitterness will have subsided and a juster view of the whole 



400 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

situation will be possible. In favor of publicity before the 
election it is said that two main ends are aimed at by all 
legislation of this sort ; first to prevent the collection and 
expenditure of enormous sums for the bribery of voters 
and other corrupt purposes; and, second, by revealing the 
source of campaign funds to make it difficult or impossible 
for the victorious party to carry out corrupt bargains into 
which it may have entered in order to obtain large con- 
tributions. Publicity after the election will, indeed, serve 
the second of these ends, but publicity before would be 
much more effective in preventing corrupt collection and 
expenditure of funds. Moreover, it might prevent the 
victory of the party pursuing such a policy and, thus by 
keeping it out of power, render it incapable of paying by 
governmental favor for its contributions. 

R. C. Brooks: Corruption in American Politics and 
Life, pp. 22,y2^y. Dodd, Mead and Co., New York, 1910. 

Questions 

What were the total contributions to the Republican and Demo- 
cratic campaign funds in 1908? Which had the larger circle of con- 
tril)utors? How did the expense of the campaign compare with that 
of earher ones? What are the arguments for or against publicity of 
campaign contributions before elections? 



LXVIII 
CORRUPT PRACTICE LEGISLATION 

The movement for political reform resulted in legislation gov- 
erning the conduct of elections and forbidding corrupt practices 
in efforts to win votes or gain a victory. These laws are based 
on the principle that it is the right and duty of the State to 
supervise the internal workings of political parties and the 
choice of their candidates no less carefully than it does the 
general elections of its officials. Part of this legislation follows 
lines which have long been recognized — prohibition of im- 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 401 

proper use of money in influcncinj^ voters, etc. ; ,'inolhcr part en- 
deavors, by limiting the amount that may be spent on a primary 
campaign or general election, to remove the aflvantage that the 
lavish expenditure of money gives. For the enforcement of 
such j)rovisions some Slates have insisted that the financial side 
of cami)aigns should be conducted through responsible oflicials 
of the party or committee. 

During the month of Fcbrtiary, the states of Indiana, 
North Dakota, and Wyoming ])asse{l comprehensive cor- 
rupt practice laws. In the two latter states, the provisions 
of the Oregon primary law were followed closely and the 
plan of ])ublishing a state pamphlet, stating reasons for 
the election or defeat of the respective candidates, and 
furnishing a copy to each elector of the state was adopted. 
Forty days beffjre the ])rimary (thirty-three days by the 
Wyoming law) candidates may fde with the vSecretary of 
State their portraits and statements of the reasons why 
they should be nominated. Those who oppose them may 
file the reason of their opposition. Space in the ]Kun])lilct 
is sold at a rate ])er ])age varying with the importance of 
the office sought. In Indiana, it ranges from $100 ])cr 
page for a candidate for United States senator or con- 
gressman, for governor, secretary of state or state treas- 
urer; to $10 per page for assemblymen; additional s])ace, 
not to exceed three pages, is procurable at the rate of $100 
]>er page, or $25 ])er page depending upon the office. In 
Wyoming the i)rice per page varies from $200 to $100, 
additional s])ace being sold at $100 i)er ])agc. The secre- 
tary of state i)ublishes these statements in a pamphlet six 
by nine inches in size and mails a coj)y to each registered 
voter in the state. The Wyoming law makes further pro- 
vision for the filing of statements by political committees 
I)rior to the general election relative to their party prin- 
ci])les and candidates, and for ])ublishing and distributing 
these statements by the secretary of state. 

The amount which a canrlidate may spend in the primary 
or election, exclusive of the expense for space in the of- 
27 



402 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

ficia] pamphlet, is limited by the North Dakota law to 
fifteen per cent, of one year's salary of the office he seeks, 
although $ioo is allowed in any case. The Wyoming law 
allows an expenditure not to exceed twenty per cent, of one 
year's salary, with a minimum allow^ance of $200. Illegal 
expenditures under the North Dakota act embrace contri- 
butions, during one's candidacy, to religious, poHtical or 
charitable causes, the gift of intoxicating liquors to influ- 
ence electors, payments for transporting voters to the polls, 
or for any loss they have sustained through attendance at 
the polls and hiring workers on primary or election day. 
Badges or insignia may not be sold or worn near the polls, 
nor may electioneering be done on election day. 

The Wyoming law prohibits payments for political serv- 
ices by candidates or political committees, except for the 
endorsement of candidacy through the papers, for securing 
signatures to nomination papers, and such expenses as are 
connected with the holding of public meetings, or with the 
gratuitous service of writers and speakers, the distribution 
of literatjjre, conducting headquarters, and payments for 
traveling expenses, telegraphing, etc. Both the North 
Dakota and the Wyoming laws prohibit political contribu- 
tions from corporations. 

Candidates and political committees must keep detailed 
accounts of election receipts and expenses, and file state- 
ments thereof with the secretary of state or with the county 
clerk at the close of the campaign. The Wyoming law re- 
quires statements from all persons expending more than 
$50. 

The North Dakota law forbids pre-election promises of 
appointment, and prohibits the insertion in papers or peri- 
odicals of paid political material unless it is stated that such 
material is a paid advertisenient. 

The violation of these corrupt practice laws is punish- 
able by a fine not in excess of $1,000 and imprisonment in 
the county jail. For failure to file statements of expense 
a candidate is liable to a fine of $25 for each day's delay 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 403 

and his name may not be placed upon the official ballot 
until such a statement is filed. 

The Wyoming law gives the circuit court of the county 
where statements of expense should be filed, exclusive 
original jurisdiction of all violations of the act, with power 
to declare the election of any candidate void. Prosecu- 
tions under this act are advanced on the court docket over 
all pending civil actions, • and witnesses are not excused 
from testifying on the grounds that their testimony would 
render them criminally liable or expose them to public 
ignominy. 

While the Wyoming law requires each political committee 
to operate through a responsible treasurer, this provision 
is more carefully covered in the Indiana statute. The 
latter state has followed the Maryland law more closely 
than any other, and has also borrowed the English plan 
of requiring candidates to work through " political agents." 
This latter provision is aimed at what has constituted a 
fruitful source of corruption, that is, the irresponsible 
distribution of campaign funds. These laws are drawn on 
the theory that funds should be expended only by such 
agents as have sufficient aiithority to bind their principals. 
The treasurer of a political committee is compelled to give 
a bond for the faithful performance of his duties. No 
one except a candidate may make any political contribution 
within six months of any election except to a political 
treasurer or agent. Corporation subscriptions may not be 
solicited at all and candidates' contributions must be volun- 
tary. The purposes for which agents and treasurers may 
expend money are designated, and include, in general, the 
holding of public meetings, conducting headquarters and 
the dissemination of information. All printed material 
must purport on its face to be printed by authority of 
the treasurer or agent and if published in a newspaper must 
be marked as an advertisement. Candidates may pay for 
their personal expenses in traveling and circulating letters, 
etc., but other expenses must not exceed a fixed scale de- 



404 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

pendent upon the number of electors in their district. De- 
tailed statements of expense accounts must be filed by 
political treasurers and agents and by candidates. Failure 
to do so is penalized by fines not exceeding $i,ooo for 
political treasurers and agents and $2,000 for candidates. 
Imprisonment for not longer than one year may be added 
to these penalties. No person is to be deemed elected to 
any office who has failed to file the required statements. 
Giving or receiving things of value to influence voters is 
penalized as a corrupt practice. Judges and corporations 
may make no contributions. Employers are forbidden to 
attempt to influence the votes of their employees through 
the posting of notices or the dissemination of political 
literature. Personation is also penalized. 

Prosecutions for violation of the corrupt practice law 
may be instituted in the circuit court. of any county in the 
district in which the candidate was voted for, by the peti- 
tion of any defeated candidate or by ten qualified voters. 
Such action must be brought within thirty days. Trial is 
to be without jury unless one party desires a jury to be 
judge of the facts. If it be found that any candidate 
elected to any office in the state has been guilty of a cor- 
rupt practice through himself or his agents, or through 
political committees acting in his behalf, the judge shall 
certify that fact to the governor, who must within five 
days declare the office vacant. If the guilty candidate is 
a presidential elector or congressman, the judgment must 
be certified by the governor to the speaker of the house of 
representatives, if a state senator to the president of the 
senate, and if a representative to the house of representa- 
tives of the General Assembly of Indiana. 

The duty is also imposed upon the prosecuting attor- 
ney of each county to prosecute for violations of this 
act. 

These three laws, while they contribute little that is new 
to corrupt practice jurisprudence, embrace provisions which 
have been used with considerable success elsewhere. They 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 405 

may be expected to greatly decrease the contamination of 
elections in these states. 

S. Gale Lowrie: Corrupt Practices at Elections in 
American Political Science Reznezv, pp. 236 ff. Vol. V. 
1911. 

Questions 

Describe the application of the " publicity pamphlet " to primary 
elections. Who pays the expense of it ? How are expenditures in 
primary or general elections limited in North Dakota? How do 
these provisions tend to put rich and poor men on a parity in running 
for office? What do you think would be the effect of the direct pri- 
mary in this respect where campaign expenses are not Hmited? 
What uses of money are illegal in primary or regular elections in 
North Dakota and Wyoming ? What is the advantage of requiring a 
political party or committee to operate through a responsible treas- 
urer? How could the corrupt practice acts be evaded if this were 
not the case? Give the provisions of the Wyoming and Indiana 
laws. What statements must be filed under the Indiana law? What 
is the penalty for failure to file them? How may a violation of a 
corrupt practice act be punished in North Dakota? In Indiana? 
How may an election be declared void for such a violation? 



LXIX 

THE UNITED STATES AMENDED CORRUPT 
PRACTICE ACT 

An Act To amend an act entitled '' An act providing for 
publicity of contributions made for the purpose of influ- 
encing elections at which Representatives in Congress are 
elected " and extending the same to candidates for nomina- 
tion and election to the offices of Representative and Sena- 
tor in the Congress of the United States and limiting the 
amount of campaign expenses. . . . 

(The fifth section of the act amended specifies the type of 
statement of campaign expenditures and contributions that must 
be filed by the treasurers of Congressional campaign com- 
mittees.) 



406 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

'' Sec. 8. The word ' candidate ' as used in this section 
shall include all persons whose names are presented for 
nomination for Representative or Senator in the Congress 
of the United States at any primary election or nominating 
convention, or for endorsement or election at any general 
or special election held in connection with the nomination 
or election of a person to fill such office, whether or not 
such persons are actually nominated, indorsed or elected." 

" Every person who shall be a candidate for nomination 
at any primary election or nominating convention, or for 
election at any general or special election, as Representative 
in the Congress of the United States, shall, not less than 
ten nor more than fifteen days before the day for holding 
such primary election or nominating convention, and not 
less than ten nor more than fifteen days before the day of 
the general or special election at which candidates for 
Representatives are to be elected, file with the Clerk of the 
House of Representatives at Washington, District of 
Columbia, a full, correct, and itemized statement of all 
moneys and things of value received by him or by anyone for 
him with his knowledge and consent, from any source, in aid 
or support of his candidacy, together with the names of all 
those who have furnished the same in whole or in part ; 
and such statement shall contain a true and itemized ac- 
count of all moneys and things of value given, contributed, 
expended, used, or promised by such candidate, or by his 
agent, representative, or other person for and in his behalf 
with his knowledge and consent, together with the names 
of all those to whom any and all such gifts, contributions, 
payments, or promises w^ere made, for the purpose of pro- 
curing his nomination or election." 

(Similar provisions for Senators, except that three statements 
must be filed — one for the primary campaign, one for the cam- 
paign in which he seeks the popular indorsement, either by di- 
rect vote or by the election of Representatives pledged to vote 
for him. and a third before the State legislature votes for the 
election of a Senator. Similarly statements both for Senator 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 407 

and Representative must be filed 15 days after a primary, 30 
days after a general election, and in the case of a Senator, 30 
days after the State legislature has elected a Senator. Every 
such candidate must include a statement of any promises or 
pledges he has made to secure either a government office or 
private employment for any person in return for support for 
his candidacy.) 

" No candidate for Representative in Congress or for 
Senator of the United States shall promise any office or 
position to any person, or to use his influence or to give 
his support to any person for any office or position for the 
purpose of procuring the support of such person or of any 
person, in his candidacy ; nor shall any candidate for Sena- 
tor of the United States give, contribute, expend, use, or 
promise any money or thing of value to assist in procuring 
the nomination or election of any particular candidate for 
the legislature of the State in which he resides, but such 
candidate may, within the limitations and restrictions and 
subject to the requirements of this act, contribute to politi- 
cal committees having charge of the disbursement of cam- 
paign funds." 

" No candidate for Representative in Congress or for 
Senator of the United States shall give, contribute, expend, 
use, or promise, or cause to be given, contributed, ex- 
pended, used, or promised, in procuring his nomination or 
election, any sum in the aggregate, in excess of the amount 
which he may lawfully give, contribute, expend, or promise 
under the laws of the State in which he resides : Pro- 
vided, that no candidate for Representative in Congress 
shall give, contribute, expend, use, or promise any sum, in 
the aggregate, exceeding five thousand dollars in any cam- 
paign for his nomination and election; and no candidate 
for Senator of the United States shall give, contribute, 
expend, use, or promise any sum in the aggregate, exceed- 
ing ten thousand dollars in any campaign for his nomina- 
tion and election. Provided further, That money expended 
by any such candidate to meet and discharge any assess- 



^o8 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

ment, fee, or charge made or levied upon candidates by the 
laws of the State in which he resides, or for his necessary 
personal expenses, incurred for himself alone, for travel 
and subsistence, stationery and postage, writing or print- 
ing (other than in newspapers), and distributing letters, 
circulars, and posters, and for telegraph and telephone serv- 
ice, shall not be regarded as an expenditure within the 
meaning of this section, and shall not be considered any 
part of the sum herein fixed as the limit of expense and 
need not be shown in the statements herein required to be 
filed." . . . 

(Persons who are elected Senators or are candidates for the 
office, must file statements of any contributions they may have 
made to the campaign funds of members of the State legislature 
at a time when they were not candidates. All statements must 
be under oath.) 

Statutes of the United States, 626. Congress, ist Ses- 
sion, 191 1, pp. 25-29. 

Questions 

What statements must be filed by candidates for nominations as 
Senators and Congressmen and by candidates for those offices? 
When must they be filed? Where? What promises made by can- 
didates for Representative and Senator are illegal? What limita- 
tions are placed on the sums that Senators or Congressmen may 
spend for their nomination or election ? What expenditures are ex- 
cluded from those that count toward these sums? 



LXX 

THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT 
WOODROW WILSON, MARCH 4, 1913 

The presidential campaign of 1912 marked the culmination of 
a discontent with the moral standards of our national political 
and economic life which had been growing for twenty years. 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS . 409 

There was demand for a new social justice and for better polit- 
ical methods, and, forceful as it was, those who made it had 
scarcely come to an agreement as to the specific reforms fifto 
translate it into practice. All three of the great parties that 
contested the campaign claimed to be " progressive " in spirit, 
widely as the demands of their platforms differed. In the con- 
fusion and uncertainty that will, apparently, mark our politics 
for some time to come, the declaration of faith of the President- 
elect assumes an especial importance. 

There has been a change of government. It began two 
years ago, when the House of Representatives became 
Democratic by a decisive majority. It has now been com- 
pleted. The Senate about to assemble will also be Demo- 
cratic. The offices of President and Vice President have 
been put into the hands of Democrats. What does the 
change mean? That is the question that is uppermost in 
our minds to-day. That is the question I am going to try 
to answer in order, if I may, to interpret the occasion. 

It means much more than the mere success of a party. 
The success of a party means little except when the nation 
is using that party for a large and definite purpose. No 
one can mistake the purpose for which the nation now seeks 
to use the Democratic party. It seeks to use it to interpret 
a change in its own plans and point of view. 

Some old things wath w^hich we had grown familiar, and 
which had begun to creep into the very habit of our thought 
and of our lives, have altered their aspect as we have lat- 
terly looked critically upon them, with fresh, awakened 
eyes; have dropped their disguises and shown themselves 
alien and sinister. 

Some new things, as we look frankly upon them, willing 
to comprehend their real character, have come to assume 
the aspect of things long believed in and familiar, stuff of 
our own convictions. We have been refreshed by a new 
insight into our own life. 

We see that in many things that life is very great. It is 
incomparably great in its material aspects, in its body of 



410 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

wealth, In the diversity and sweep of its energy, in the in- 
dustries which have been conceived and built up by the 
genius of individual men and the limitless enterprise of 
groups of men. It is great, also, very great, in its moral 
force. 

Nowhere else in the world have noble men and women 
exhibited in more striking forms the beauty and the energy 
of sympathy and helpfulness and counsel in their efforts 
to rectify wrong, alleviate suffering and set the weak in the 
way of strength and hope. We have built up, moreover, a 
great system of government, which has stood through a 
long age as in many respects a model for those who seek to 
set liberty upon foundations that will endure against for- 
tuitous change, against storm and accident. Our life con- 
tains every great thing, and contains it in rich abundance. 

But the evil has come with the good, and much fine gold 
has been corroded. With riches has come inexcusable 
waste. We have squandered a great part of what we might 
have used, and have not stopped to conserve the exceeding 
bounty of nature, without which our genius for enterprise 
would have been worthless and impotent, scorning to be 
careful, shamefully prodigal as well as admirably effi- 
cient. 

We have been proud of our industrial achievements, but 
we have not hitherto stopped thoughtfully enough to count 
the human cost, the cost of lives snuffed out, of energies 
overtaxed and broken, the fearful physical and spiritual 
cost to the men and women and children upon whom the 
dead weight and burden of it all has fallen pitilessly the 
years through. 

The groans and agony of it all had not yet reached our 
ears, the solemn, moving undertone of our life, coming up 
out of the mines and factories and out of every home 
where the struggle had its intimate and familiar seat. With 
the great government went many deep secret things which 
we too long delayed to look into and scrutinize with candid, 
fearless eyes. The great government we loved has too 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 411 

often been made use of for private and selfish purposes, 
and those who used it had forgotten the people. 

At last a vision has been vouchsafed us of our life as a 
whole. We see the bad with the good, the debased and 
decadent with the sound and vital. With this vision we 
approach new affairs. Our duty is to cleanse, to recon- 
sider, to restore, to correct the evil without impairing the 
good, to purify and humanize every process of our common 
life without weakening or sentimentalizing it. There has 
been something crude and heartless and unfeeling in our 
haste to succeed and be great. 

Our thought has been " Let every man look out for him- 
self, let every generation look out for itself,'' while we 
reared giant machinery which made it impossible that any 
but those who stood at the levers of control should have a 
chance to look out for themselves. We had not forgotten 
our morals. We remembered well enough that we had set 
up a policy which was meant to serve the humblest as well 
as the most powerful, with an eye single to the standards 
of justice and fair play, and remembered it with pride. 
But we were very heedless and in a hurry to be great. 

We have come now to the sober second thought. The 
scales of heedlessness have fallen from our eyes. We 
have made up our minds to square every process of our 
national life again with the standards we so proudly set 
up at the beginning and have always carried at our hearts. 
Our work is a work of restoration. 

We have itemized with some degree of particularity the 
things that ought to be altered, and here are some of the 
chief items : A tariff which cuts us off from our proper 
part in the commerce of the world, violates the just prin- 
ciples of taxation, and makes the government a facile in- 
strument in the hands of private interests ; a banking and 
currency system based upon the necessity of the govern- 
ment to sell its bonds fifty years ago and perfectly adapted 
to concentrating cash and restricting credits ; an industrial 
system, which, take it on all its sides, financial as well as ad- 



412 READINGS IN AMERICAN HISTORY 

ministrative, holds capital in leading strings, restricts the 
liberties and limits the opportnnities of labor, and exploits 
without renewing or conserving the natural resources of 
the country ; a body of agricultural activities never yet given 
the efficiency of great business undertakings or served as it 
should be through the instrumentality of science taken 
directly to the farm, or afforded the facilities of credit 
best suited to its practical needs; watercourses undevel- 
oped, waste places unreclaimed, forests untended, fast dis- 
appearing without plan or prospect of renewal, unregarded 
waste heaps at every mine. We have studied, as perhaps 
no other nation has, the most effective means of produc- 
tion, but we have not studied cost or economy as we should 
either as organizers of industry, as statesmen or as indi- 
viduals. 

Nor have we studied and perfected the means by which 
government may be put at the service of humanity, in safe- 
guarding the health of the nation, the health of its men 
and its women and its children, as well as their rights in 
the struggle for existence. 

This is no sentimental duty. The firm basis of govern- 
ment is justice, not pity. These are matters of justice. 
There can be no equality of opportunity, the first essential 
of justice in the body politic, if men and women and chil- 
dren be not shielded in their lives, their very vitality, from 
the consequences of great industrial and social processes 
which they cannot alter, control or singly cope with. 

Society must see to it that it does not itself crush or 
weaken or damage its own constituent parts. The first 
duty of law is to keep sound the society it serves. Sani- 
tary laws, pure food laws, and laws determining conditions 
of labor which individuals are powerless to determine for 
themselves are intimate parts of the very business of jus- 
tice and legal efficiency. 

These are some of the things we ought to do, and not 
leave the others alone, the old-fashioned, never-to-be-neg- 
lected, fundamental safeguarding of property and of indi- 



NATIONAL PROBLEMS 413 

vidual right. This is the high enterprise of the new day: 
to lift everything that concerns our Ufe as a nation to the 
Hght that shines from the hearthfire of every man's con- 
science and vision of the right. 

It is inconceivable, that we should do this as partisans; 
it is inconceivable we should do it in ignorance of the facts 
as they are or in blind haste. We shall restore, not de- 
stroy. We shall deal with our economic system as it is 
and as it may be modified, not as it might be if we had a 
clean sheet of paper to write upon; and step by step we 
shall make it what it should be, in the spirit of those who 
question their own wisdom and seek counsel and knowl- 
edge, not shallow self-satisfaction or the excitement of 
excursions whither they cannot tell. Justice, and only 
justice, shall always be our motto. 

And yet it will be no cool process of mere science. The 
nation has been deeply stirred, stirred by a solemn pas- 
sion, stirred by the knowledge of wrong, of ideals lost, of 
government too often debauched and made an instrument 
of evil. The feelings with which we face this new age of 
right and opportunity sweep across our heart-strings like 
some air out of God's own presence, where justice and 
mercy are reconciled and the judge and the brother are one. 
We know our task to be no mere task of politics, but a task 
which shall search us through and through, wdiether we be 
able to understand our time and the needs of our people, 
whether we be indeed their spokesman and interpreters, 
whether we have the pure heart to comprehend and the 
rectified will to choose our high course of action. 

This is not a day of triumph; it is a day of dedication. 
Here muster, not the forces of party, but the forces of 
humanity. Men's hearts wait upon us; men's lives hang 
in the balance; men's hopes call upon us to say what we 
will do. Who shall live up to the great trust? Who dares 
fail to try? I summon all honest men, all patriotic, all 
forward-looking men, to my side. God helping me, I will 
not fail them, if they will but counsel and sustain me ! 

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